BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR 


JOSEPH  LE  CONTE. 


1823-1901, 


BY 


EUGENE   W.  HILGARD. 


Heap  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
April  18,  1907. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

.JUDD   A  DETWEILER,  INC.,   PRINTERS 

1907 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


The  Peter  and  Rosell  Harvey 
Memorial  Fund 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/biographicalmemoOOhilgrich 


cx^c^cO 


BIOGRAPHICAL    MEMOIR 


OF 


JOSEPH  LE  CONTE. 

1823-1901. 


BY 

EUGENE   W.  HILGAKD. 


Head  before  the  National  Academy  of  .Sciences 
April  18,  1907. 


(17)  .     147 


mattonal  acaftcmi?  of  Sctencee. 

Arnold  Hague, 

Home  Secretary.                                                                    WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

May   15, 

1902. 

^ 


University  of  California, 

BerlKieley ,  California . 
Dear  Sir:  - 

At  a  meeting  of  the  National 
Acadeniy  of  Science  held  April  16,  1902,  you 
were  appointed  by  President  Agassiz  to  prepare 
a  biographic  memoir  of  our  colleague  Profes- 
sor Joseph  Le  Conte,  to  be  presented  to  the 
Academy.  The  memoir  will  be  printed  as  one 
of  the  publications  of  the  Academy, 

Yours  respectfully, 


Secretary:         . /^ 


Pm. 


PEEFATOKY  NOTE. 


In  writing  the  memoir  of  the  life  and  scientific  work  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Le  Conte,  it  has  seemed  to  me  proper  and  best  to 
follow,  so  far  as  practicable,  his  autobiography,  in  which  the 
facts,  events,  and  motives  are  presented  by  himself  in  their 
proper  connection  and  order,  better  than  could  be  done  by  any 
.one  else.  In  the  abridgment  of  his  text  I  have  purposely  striven 
to  retain  in  a  great  measure  his  own  mode  of  diction  and  ex- 
pression, considering  it  desirable  that  he  should  appear  essen- 
tially in  the  light  in  which  he  viewed  himself;  and  that  the  some- 
what exceptional  mode  of  mental  growth  of  a  man  so  highly 
gifted,  undei-  conditions  now  fast  becoming  extinct,  should  be 
succinctly  i)ut  on  record  in  connection  with  the  discussion  of 
his  broad  scientific  work,  to  which  is  due  (he  length  of  this 
paper.  The  writer's  long-continued  and  close  personal  relations 
with  the  subject  of  this  memoir  have  afforded  some  side-lights 
which  do  not  so  clearly  appear  in  Le  Conte's  published  writ- 
ings, and  it  gives  him  pleasure  -to  fulfill  herewith  a  promise 
mutually  mndi*  as  to  the  service  the  survivoi-  shonld  render  to 
his  frieufl. 

E.    W,    HiLGARD. 

Bkkkeley,  California,  March,  1907. 


149 


BIOGRAPHICAL  MEMOIR  OF  JOSEPH  LE  COiNTE. 


DESCENT   OF   THE   LE   CONTE   FAMILY, 

The  distinction  achieved  by  several  of  the  members  of  the 
Le  Conte  family  renders  it  interesting  to  trace  their  origin  as 
far  back  as  possible,  particularly  in  the  interest  of  the  question 
of  the  heredity  of  mental  and  intellectual  traits. 

Owing  doubtless  to  the  dissensions  of  the  times  during  the 
persecution  of  the  Huguenots  under  Louis  XIV,  Guillaume,  the 
ancestor  of  the  American  Le  Contes,  adopted  the  name  of  his 
mother,  of  the  house  of  the  Barons  de  Xonant,  in  N'ormandy. 
His  paternal  name  has  not  been  traced  by  the  family.  There 
is  a  tradition  that  he  was  warned  of  impending  danger  by  King 
Louis  himself.  He  fled  to  Holland,  from  where  he  joined  the 
great  Stadholder,  William  of  Orange,  in  the  invasion  of  Eng- 
land, He  subsequently  also  served  with  distuiction  in  the  Eng- 
lish war  for  the  conquest  of  Ireland,  and  in  1698  emigrated 
to  America,  whither  two  cousins  of  the  Nonant  line  had  preceded 
him.  Like  many  other  Huguenots,  he  settled  at  New  Rochelle, 
N'ew  York,  where  at  that  time  we  find  domiciled  also  another 
group  of  Le  Contes  or  Le  Comtes,  apparently  unrelated. 

In  1701  Guillaume  married  Marguerite  de  Valleau,  of  Mar- 
tinique. The  report  that  he  married  twice  appears  to  be  un- 
founded. Both  died  of  yellow  fever  in  1710.  Three  children 
were  born  of  this  marriage,  viz.,  Guillaume,  Pierre,  and  Esther, 
of  whom  the  latter  probably  died  in  childhood.  Guillaume  the 
younger  married  Elise  Anne  Beslie,  of  New  Rochelle,  by  whom 
he  had  one  child,  a  daughter,  from  whom  descended  Mother 
Seton,  the  founder  of  the  Sisters  of  Charity  in  this  country,  and 
the  late  Archbishop  Bayley,  of  Baltimore. 

The  second  son  of  Guillaume  the  elder.  Dr.  Pierre  Le  Conte, 
who  lived  in  'New  Jersey,  married  twice.  His  second  wife  wai? 
Valeria  Eatton    (related  to    the    Biddle,  Baird,  and    Berrien 

151 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

families),  by  wliom  he  had  five  children — William,  John  Eatton, 
Margaret,  Thomas,  and  Pierre.  William  became  a  lawyer  and 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  E evolutionary  struggle  in  Georgia, 
whither  he,  as  well  as  Thomas  and  Pierre  the  younger,  had 
moved.     The  latter  two  never  married. 

John  Eatton,  from  whom  all  subsequent  Le  Contes  are  de- 
scended, was  bom  in  1739,  and  died  in  New  Jersey  in  1822. 
He  spent  his  summers  in  New  York  and  his  winters  on  his 
plantation,  "Woodmanston,"  in  Liberty  county,  Georgia.  Like 
his  brother  William,  he  was  accounted  a  "malignant"  and  rebel. 
In  1776  he  married  Jane  Sloane,  of  New  York,  by  whom  he  had 
three  sons.  The  eldest,  William,  died  unmarried.  Louis,  born 
in  1782,  went  to  Georgia  and  there  married  Anne  Quarterinan, 
who  became  the  mother  of  John  and  of  Joseph  Le  Conte,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch.  John  Eatton,  the  third  son,  became  a 
major  in  the  U.  S.  Corps  of  Topographical  Engineers,  and 
married  Ann  Lawrence,  who  became  the  mother  of  John  L. 
Le  Conte,  the  distinguished  entomologist. 

Louis,  the  father  of  Joseph  Le  Conte,  born  in  New  Jersey  in 
1782,  was  educated  in  New  York,  graduating  at  Columbia 
College  when  only  seventeen  years  old.  He  studied  medicine 
imder  Dr.  Hosack  for  some  time,  but  is  not  known  to  have 
graduated  as  a  physician,  his  main  object  being  probably  to 
practice  on  his  owti  plantation.  He  was,  however,  called 
"doctor." 

Louis  Le  Conte  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  his  influence  on  the 
characters  and  life  pursuits  of  his  sons  was  so  great  that  his 
life  and  character  must  be  briefly  considered.  He  lived  on  the 
"Woodmanston"  plantation  in  Liberty  county,  Georgia.  The 
region  had  been  settled  by  a  community  of  English  Puritans, 
who  originally  founded  Dorchester,  Massachusetts;  they  were 
very  morai  and  somewhat  clannish  and  exclusive,  so  that  when 
Louis  came  among  them  he  was  considered  an  outsider;  but 
eventually,  after  his  marriage  with  one  of  the  members  of  the 
exclusive  set,  the  warmest  mutual  relations  were  established. 
He  was  greatly  interested  in  scientific  pursuits,  especially  chem- 
istry and  botany;  and  in  the  then  unexplored  field  by  which  he 
was  surrounded  he  identified  the  described  species  and  discovered 
many  new  plants,  but  never  named  or  published  them,   and 

152 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTFJ. 

freely  gave  his  material  to  his  scientific  friends.  His  beautiful 
garden  became  known  all  over  the  United  States  and  brought 
many  visitors,  who  wei*e  hosi)itably  entertained.  His  botanical 
insight  disliked  the  mechanical  arrangement  of  the  Linncan 
system,  so  that  he  always  referred  his  plants  to  their  natural 
relationships.  He  was  also  a  skillful  mathematician.  Aside 
from  these  intellectual  pursuits,  he  attended  personally  to  the 
management  of  his  large  plantation,  with  200  slaves,  whom  he 
regarded  as  a  heavy  responsibility  and  constantly  strove  to  con- 
trol by  religious  and  moral  instruction,  for  wbich  special  "praise- 
houses"  were  established  in  the  community.  The  negroes  were 
greatly  attached  to  him  and  proud  of  calling  him  "master." 
Tfe  also  exerted  himself  in  belialf  of  tbe  instruction  and  general 
betterment  of  the  condition  of  the  white  "crackers"  inhabiting 
the  pine  woods  souie  distance  away.  'I'hough  not  a  member  of 
any  particular  church,  his  benevolence  and  charity  made  him 
universally  beloved  and  respected. 

It  was  under  these  influences,  to  which  was  doubtless  added 
the  inheritance  of  their  mother's  highly  artistic  temperament, 
together  with  natural  surroundings  of  great  beauty  and  scientific 
interest,  in  which  the  children  were  free  to  roam  at  will,  that 
their  characters  and  temperaments  were  shaped. 

The  issue  of  Louis'  marriage  were  four  sons  and  three 
daughters,  of  whom  one  died  in  infancy.  The  other  six  children 
grew  up  to  marry  and  have  children  of  their  own.  The  mother, 
however,  died  early  (in  1826),  so. that  her  direct  influence  upon 
Joseph  could  have  been  but  slight ;  but  her  death  prostrated  the 
father,  who  remained  plunged  in  gloom  for  years,  until  by  the 
marriage  of  the  elder  children,  William  and  Jane,  grandchildren 
came  to  dispel,  in  a  measure,  the  cloud  of  sadness.  But  the  in- 
ter^^ening  period  of  sorrow  had  greatly  impressed  its  seriousness 
upon  the  children  and  influenced  their  temperaments. 

BOYHOOD    AND    COLLEGE    EDUCATION    OF    JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

Joseph  Le  Conte  was  born  February  26,  1823,  being  the  fifth 
child  and  the  youngest  son.  \Yitli  his  three  brothers,  of  whom 
Lewis  was  the  nearest  to  him  in  age,  he  was  accustomed  to  range 
the  woods,  fields,  and  swamps  of  the  region  freely,  in  quest  of 
game,  fish,  and  specimens  of  natural  history,  upon  which  the 

153 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 

father  then  commented  instructively.  Joseph  became  a  good 
marksman,  fisherman,  swimmer,  and  athlete;  in  the  latter  ac- 
complishment he  afterwards  greatly  excelled.  Of  necessity,  play- 
things, marbles,  bows  and  arrows,  canoes,  and  even  rudimentary 
firearms,  were  made  by  the  boys  themselves.  Joseph's  formal 
schooling  was  scanty,  in  a  country  school  supported  by  a  few 
families  and  which  was  constantly  changing  teachers ;  but  among 
the  latter  there  was  for  two  years  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  sub- 
sequently United  States  Senator  and  Vice-President  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy,  with  whom  he  maintained  a  lifelong 
friendship.  His  imagination  was  much  excited  by  the  tales 
told  and  accounts  given  by  imported  negroes,  of  things  in  their 
native  land,  and  of  border  warfare  in  which  they  had  participated. 
His  country  schooling  and  boy  life  ended  in  December,  1838, 
when,  as  he  was  about  to  go  to  college  at  the  age  of  not  quite 
16  years,  his  father  died  from  accidental  blood-poisoning,  at 
the  age  of  55  years.  This  event,  which  he  had  always  put  away 
from  himself  as  almost  impossible',  stunned  and  dazed  him; 
but,  in  obedience  to  his  father's  expressed  wishes,  he  left  home 
a  week  afterward,  with  his  brothers  John  and  Lewis,  for  the 
college  at  Athens,  Georgia,  300  miles  away;  he  up  to  that  time 
having  never  been  more  than  eight  miles  away  from  home.  It 
was  a  week's  Journey,  mostly  by  stage,  and  brought  him  in  con- 
tact with  an  unfamiliar  world — not  very  attractive  to  him,  for 
he  suffered  severely  from  nostalgia  for  several  months.  The 
temptations  usually  supposed  to  beset  young  students  entering 
college  seem  to  have  been  no  temptations  to  him;  all  coarse- 
ness and  vulgarity  merely  repelled  him,  and  he  simply  and 
naturally  kept  away  from  them  and  their  devotees.  During  the 
first  year  he  received  a  letter  from  his  eldest  brother,  William,  a 
deeply  religious  man  of  the  old  orthodox  type  and  his  legal 
guardian.  This  letter  "ajluded  with  distress  and  doubt  to  their 
father's  dying  outside  of  the  pale  of  any  church"  and  vehemently 
urged  upon  Joseph  the  necessity  of  "fleeing  from  the  wrath 
to  come."  This  letter  greatly  distressed  and  impressed  him, 
and  at  a  religious  "revival"  he  and  his  brothers,  with  many  other 
students,  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church,  although  the  church 
at  Midway  was  of  the  Puritan-Congregationalist  faith ;  but  they 
concluded  that  the  Presbyterian  was  "good  enough"  for  them. 

154 


JOSEPH   LE   CONTE. 

He  refers  to  tliis  as  a  great  crisis  in  his  life,  having  experienced 
a  sudden,  almost  miraculous  conversion,  followed  by  great  joy 
and  relief.  He  says  that  "the  change  was  a  sense  of  the  de- 
liverance from  the  fear  of  death  and  the  hereafter — not  the 
establishment  of  a  new  relation,  but  the  discovery  of  the  true 
relation  existing."  But  his  elder  brother's  admonition  that  he 
might  feel  it  liis  duty  to  become  a  minister  of  the  gospel  did  not 
prevail,  and  he  remarks  that  "one  may  be  a  preacher  of  right- 
eousness in  more  ways  than  one." 

Although  a  member  of  one  of  the  college  literary  societies,  he 
never  became  a  good  debater;  but  he  greatly  delighted  in  the 
society  of  refined  women,  and  entertained  toward  women  in 
general  a  romantic  feeling,  as  toward  superior  beings,  which  he 
declares  to  be  "tlie  greatest  of  all  safeguards  for  the  purity  of 
young  men." 

Le  Conte  does  not  attribute  to  himself  any  unusual  diligence 
in  study  while  in  college;  yet  he  was  both  a  junior  and  senior 
orator,  the  titles  of  his  addresses  being  "True  Greatness"  and 
"Love  of  Ti-uth,  the  Highest  Incentive  to  Effort."  The  manu- 
scripts of  these  efforts  he  afterwards  destroyed  because  dis- 
satisfied with  them.  "The  skillful  putting  together  of  common- 
places of  literature  into  a  brilliant  patchwork"  he  states  he 
could  never  do,  and  that  "the  ability  to  write  anything  of  value 
iCame  late,"  and  not  until  he  "had  independent  thoughts  of  his 
own." 

During  his  college  course  at  Athens  the  natural-history 
sciences  were  almost  wholly  neglected,  these  being  but  feebly 
represented  in  the  faculty.  Charles  F.  McCay  seems  to  have 
impressed  him  as  the  only  strong  man  in  the  faculty,  he  repre- 
senting mathematics  and  physics. 

Le  Conte's  college  life  was  uneventful,  not  even  accompanied 
by  the  usual  "pranks."  His  vacations  were  passed  at  the  old 
plantation  or  with  his  brother  William,  at  Cedar  Hill,  where 
he  renewed  his  old  sports  of  hunting,  fishing,  &c.  In  January, 
1841,  that  brother  died — "the  second  great  affliction  I  have  suf- 
fered by  death." 


155 


IS'ATIONAti   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 


POSTGRADUATE    STUDIES    AND    TRAVELS. 

Le  Conte  and  his  brother  Lewis  graduated  from  the  Athens 
College  in  August,  1841.  Their  sister  Anne  having  graduated 
about  the  same  time,  the  three  agreed  to  make  a  tour  of  the 
Northern  States.  During  this  first  excursion  into  the  outer 
world,  they  visited  first  the  city  of  Washington,  with  the  mag- 
nificence of  whose  buildings  and  monuments  they  were  greatly 
impressed,  as  also  by  the  oratory  of  Webster,  Calhoun,  and 
Clay  in  Congress.  After  a  week  at  the  capital  they  visited 
Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Cambridge,  returning  via 
New  York,  where  there  was  a  family  reunion,  their  married 
sister,  Jane,  and  their  brother  John,  lately  married,  gathering 
at  the  house  of  their  uncle,  John  Eatton  Le  Conte,  the  father 
of  John  Lawrence,  the  entomologist,  the  latter  then  but  sixteen 
years  of  age.  Eeturning  in  November,  all  stayed  during  winter 
at  Woodmanston  plantation,  with  their  sister  Jane.  On  this 
occasion  Joseph  become  acquainted  with  John  T.  Nisbet,  the 
uncle  of  his  future  wife.  Hunting,  fishing,  and  excursions  oc- 
cupied their  time.  In  spring  and  summer  more  extended. ex- 
cursions were  made,  from  Macon  and  Athens  into  the  mountains 
of  Georgia.  Thereafter  Joseph  began  the  study  of  medicine 
under  Dr.  Charles  West,  at  Macon,  until  the  beginning  of  winter, 
which  he  again  passed  at  the  old  plantation,  riding,  hunting, 
and  fishing  in  company  with  his  cousin,  John  L.,  who  had  come 
on  I  visit  which  was  greatly  enjoyed  by  both. 

About  this  time  the  great  comet  of  1843  appeared,  and  greatly 
impressed  him.  This  summer  he  first  met  his  future  wife  at  the 
house  of  his  friend  Nisbet,  but  at  that  time  he  was  not  per- 
manently impressed;  in  fact,  another  fair  face  held  his  atten- 
tion just  then. 

Le  Conte  now  determined^ to  take  up  medical  studies  in  New 
York,  and  attended  the  winter  course  (1843-1844)  of  four 
months  at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  Among  his 
instructors  were  Dr.  Torrey  and  Dr.  Lewis  Sayre.  He  charac- 
terizes the  course  as  a  period  of  regular  cram  and  hard  work, 
such  as,  it  will  be  noted,  had  not  fallen  to  his  lot  during  any  of 
his  previous  rather  care-free  life. 

15(3 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

It  was  doubtless  the  taste  for  outdoor  and  more  or  less  physic- 
ally strenuous  life  that  led  him  to  undertake,  in  company  with 
his  cousin,  John  \j.,  an  excursion  to  the  then  Far  West,  the 
headwaters  of  the  Mississippi,  via  Niagara,  Buffalo,  Detroit, 
and  the  Great  Lakes.  This  trip  he  considers  as  a  very  important 
phase  in  his  development,  as  it  attracted  his  attrition  perma- 
nently to  the  great  geological  features  passing  before  him,  and 
gave  renewed  and  definite  direction  to  his  subsequent  chief 
work.    Hence  some  space  must  be  given  to  its  discussion. 

His  comments  on  the  conditions  then  prevalent  in  what  are 
now  some  of  the  chief  centers  of  commercial  and  industrial 
activity  are  very  interesting.  Buffalo  and  Detroit  were  then 
small  towns,  with  little  indication  of  their  future  greatness; 
tlie  University  of  Michigan  was  ni  its  beginnings.  At  Detroit, 
where  they  passed  a  week  in  pleasant  company,  they  were  per- 
suaded to  visit  the  Lake  Superior  country,  to  which  they  pro- 
ceeded by  the  regular  steamer  via  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan, 
stopping  at  Fort  Mackinac  and  at  Chicago,  then  a  budding  city 
of  5,000  inhabitants.  At  Mackinac  they  first  saw  birch-bark 
canoes,  which,  upside  down,  were  serving  as  sleeping  quarters 
for  the  Indians.  Captain  Scott,  the  commander  of  the  fort 
and  a  noted  hunter  of  -the  time,  to  whom  they  had  letters  of  in- 
troduction, entertained  them  hospitably  and  introduced  them  to 
some  of  the  salient  features  of  the  Far  West.  From  Mackinac 
they  went  by  canoe  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  having  provided  them- 
selves with  buffalo  robes  at  a  cost  of  one  dollar  each.  At  the 
Sault  they  met  Colonel  Gratiot,  who  was  on  the  way  from  St. 
Louis  with  a  party  of  miners  to  explore  the  copper  mines  at 
Keweenah  Point.  The  Le  Contes  were  invited  to  join  the  party, 
and  passed  three  delightful  weeks  at  Eagle  Harbor,  which  town 
they  thus  helped  to  found,  taking  an  active  part  in  the  building 
of  log  cabins,  and  hunting  and  fishing  between-times.  The 
copper  mines  do  not  seem  to  have  attracted  Joseph  Le  Conte's 
special  attention  at  the  time. 

From  Eagle  Harbor  they  again  took  sailing  vessel  to  La 
Pointe,  then  an  Indian  agents'  station  and  also  that  of  the 
American  Fur  Company.  Here  they  found  a  camp  of  about 
300  Indians,  whose  pagan  Sunday  services  they  attended  in  the 


151 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 

afternoon,  after  taking  part  in  a  Christian  service  in  the  morn- 
ing.    Le  Conte  graphically  describes  this  Indian  ceremony. 

At  .T.a  Pointe  they  made  arrangements  for  their  trip  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Mississippi,  which  was  to  be  made  by  canoe 
np  the  St.  Louis  Eiver,  thence  by  portage  across  to  the  head- 
waters of  th^  Mississippi,  which  they  were  to  descend  to  Fort 
Snelling.  The  crew  of  the  24-foot. birch-bark  canoe,  hired  from 
the  Fur  Company's  agent,  consisted  of  two  Canadian  voyageurs, 
with  whom  their  verbal  communication  was  somewhat  difficult. 
Their  agreement  was  for  forty  days  and  they  provisioned  them- 
selves accordingly. 

They  started  on  July  8,  passing  through  the  group  of  Apostle 
Islands,  whose  wave-worn  rock  caverns  they  explored,  camping 
one  night.  They  then  skirted  the  south  shore  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Bois  Bnile  Kiver,  and  thence  crossed  over  to  the  north  shore, 
which  they  desired  to  see,  and  after  camping  there  over  night 
proceeded  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Louis  River,  the  present  site 
of  the  city  of  Duluth.  Next  day  began  the  voyage  up  the  river, 
passing  numerous  Indian  villages.  While  in  camp  at  the 
Dalles  of  the  St.  Louis,  where  a  long  portage  had  to  be  made, 
Le  Conte  surprised  a  crowd  of  visiting  Indians  by  swimming  the 
rapids  repeatedly;  but  although  they  cheered  him,  his  invitation 
to  them  to  join  him  in  the  exploit  was  not  accepted.  He  com- 
ments on  the  effects  of  training  in  man  as  compared  with  ani- 
mals, and  his  belief  that  "blood  will  telF'  in  physical  man  as 
well  as  in  beasts.  Farther  up  the  river  they  were  much  an- 
noyed by  mosquitoes  and  "brulos,"  a  minute  sand-fly.  Le  Conte 
notes  that  instead  of  getting  to  drier  country  as  they  ascended 
to  greater  elevation,  the  ground  grew  marshy  and  dotted  with 
shallow  lakelets.  A  portage  of  a  few  miles  then  carried  them 
to  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  and  they  descended  to  Sandy 
Lake,  where  there  was  an  Indian  agency,  where  they  refitted 
for  the  descent  of  the  Mississippi.  Here  also  Le  Conte  raced 
with  an  Indian  boy  in  swimming  and  diving,  the  Indian  beating 
him  in  the  latter  art. 

The  voyage  down  the  river  was  uneventful;  Indians  were 
frequently  met  and  their  villages  used  for  night  camps,  but  only 
one  white  man  was  seen  down  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  a 
distance  of  between  four  and  five  hundred  miles.    Reaching  the 

158 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

falls  at  noon  one  day,  they  drew  the  canoe  up  on  a  beach  at  tlie 
very  spot  where  Minneapolis  was  founded  five  years  later.  There 
was  then  a  single  log  cabin,  owned  by  a  white  trader.  Le  Conte 
examined  with  much  interest  the  structure  of  the  gor^e  below 
the  falls,  the  rapids  of  which  they  "shot"  in  their  canoe,  and  he 
even  then  compared  the  gorge  to  that  of  Niagara,  as  being 
formed  by  the  recession  of  the  falls  from  the  escarpment  at 
Fort  Snelling;  but,  as  he  failed  to  publish  these  observations, 
the  priority  fell  to  others. 

After  a  week's  pleasant  stay  at  Fort  Snelling,  during  which 
they  visited  what  is  now  known  as  Minnehaha  Falls,  on  the 
origin  of  which  in  connection  with  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony 
Le  Conte  commented  at  the  time,  they  took  the  steamer  down 
the  river  to  Galena,  where  they  stopped  to  examine  the  lead 
mines,  also  visiting  Dubuque.  Le  Conte  mentions  passing  a 
small  village  named  St.  Paul,  and  also  Nauvoo,  where  the  Mor- 
mon excitement  connected  with  the  killing  of  Joseph  and  Hyrum 
Smith  was  then  at  its  height.  On  reaching  St.  Louis  they 
found  their  stock  of  money  exhausted,  and  had  to  borrow  funds 
to  enable  them  to  return  east  by  boat  to  Pittsburg,  and  thence 
by  rail  to  N"ew  York. 

At  New  York  he  resumed  his  medical  studies — "the  old 
grind,"  as  he  expresses  it.  During  this  time  and  until  his 
graduation,  in  April,  1845,  he  became  acquainted  with  many 
distinguished  men,  among  them  Giraud,  Bell,  Baird,  and  espe- 
cially Audubon,  wliom  he  frequently  visited  at  his  residence, 
10  miles  out  of  ilio  city,  together  with  his  brother  John;  greatly 
enjoying  the  intercourse  and  ofioji  boaiing  on  the  river  witli 
the  sons,  John  and.  Victor. 

Though  graduated  as  a  physician,  Le  Conte  did  not  intend 
to  practice  as  such,  but  considered  the  medical  course  as  being 
(at  that  time)  the  best  preparation  for  a  scientific  career.  His 
reading  of  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation"  about  this  time  was  his 
first  introduction  to  the  subject  of  evolution. 

Going  south  shortly  after  graduation,  and  while  making  a 
round  of  visits  to  relatives  and  friends,  he  made  a  large  col- 
lection of  birds,  which  he  afterwards  presented  to  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  Eeturning  from  a  series  of  excursions  to 
the  mountains  of  Georgia  in  November,  he  planned  to  make  a 

159 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

tour  through  Florida  on  horseback  with  his  cousin,  Lewis 
Jones,  to  study  the  geology  and  natural  history  of  that  region, 
then  little  known;  but  this  trip  was  brought  to  naught  by  com- 
plicatio%  with  an  affair  of  the  heart,  he  having  again  met  Miss 
Bessie  Nisbet,  his  future  wife,  this  constituting  the  second  great 
crisis  in  his  life.  The  following  year  seems  to  have  been  spent 
altogether  in  visits  and  excursions,  among  these  one  to  Yonah 
and  to  Stone  Mountain,  returning  in  September  to  Liberty 
county.  There  he  finally  became  engaged  to  Miss  Msbet,  whom 
he  married  in  January,  1847.  The  following  year  was  also 
devoted  to  excursions  and  travel,  with  riding,  hunting,  swim- 
ming, &c. 

Shortly  after  the  birth  of  his  first  child,  in  December,  1847, 
Le  Conte  was  taken  with  a  severe  attack  of  measles  wliile  on  a 
visit  at  Savannah.  Getting  up  too  early  in  the  impatience  to 
return  to  his  wife  and  child,  his  recovery  was  slow  and  tedious, 
and  it  was  several  years  before  he  recovered  his  usual  vigorous 
health. 

But  now,  having  assumed  the  responsibilities  of  a  father  of 
a  family,  he  felt  that  it  was  time  to  terminate  the  free-and-easy, 
pleasurable  life  he  thus  far  led,  and  he  concluded  that  lie  must 
become  "a  worker  in  the  social  hive,''  without,  however,  regret- 
ting the  time  spent  in  his  former  pursuits,  feeling  that  they 
had  had  a  rounding  and  broadening  effect.  Xot  wishing  to 
seclude  his  family  on  the  plantation,  he  settled,  to  practice  medi- 
cine, at  Macon,  Georgia,  and  so  continued  for  two  years  and  a 
half  (to  July,  1850),  deriving  but  a  very  moderate  income  from 
his  profession  and  enjoying  more  the  instnu-tion  of  a  few 
students.  He  became  conscious  that  he  had  not  yet  found  his 
proper  place  in  life,  his  taste  being  altogether  scientific.  In 
1849  he  read  his  first  paper  before  the  Georgia  State  Medical 
Society,  Its  title  being  "The  Science  of  Medicine."  But  he  felt 
unhappy,  as  though  he  were  wasting  his  life.  Finally,  in  the 
spring  of  1850,  his  cousin,  Lewis  Jones,  visited  Macon  and  told 
him  of  his  purpose  to  become  a  pupil  of  Louis  Agassiz,  who  had 
been  appointed  professor  of  Geology  and  Zoology  at  Harvard. 
He  at  once  joined  in  this  plan,  the  purpose  being  to  make  special 
preparation  for  the  teaching  of  these  subjects,  in  which  he  had 
become  strongly  interested  through  the  works  of  Eichard  Owen, 

160 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

especially  that  on  the  Archetype  and  Homologies  of  the  Verte- 
brate System. 

He  left  with  much  regret  the  circle  of  genial  friends  he  and 
his  wife  had  made  at  Macon,  and  in  August  1850  arrived  at 
Cambridge,  where  he  took  a  dwelling-house  on  the  Campus. 

The  regular  session  at  Harvard  did  not  open  till  October,  but 
as  he  and  his  friend  had  come  only  to  study  with  Agassiz  and 
the  latter  was  at  home,  they  went  right  to  work.  "The  first  task 
Agassiz  set  us  was  very  characteristic  of  the  man.  He  thought 
awhile,  then  pulled  out  a  drawer  containing  from  500  to  1,000 
separate  valves  of  Unio,  and  said :  Tair  these  valves  and  classify 
into  species;  names  no  matter;  separate  the  species.'  Then  he 
left  us  alone,  very  severely  alone."  They  worked  zealously  for 
weeks,  with  an  occasional  silei^t  visit  from  the  professor.  When 
they  reported  that  they  had  done  the  best  they  could,  he  ex- 
amined their  work  carefully  and  expressed  himself  much  pleased, 
remarking  to  a  visitor  that  they  had  just  correctly  amended  the 
classification  of  Lea,  the  great  authority  on  these  shells.  The 
same  system  of  instruction  was  continued,  but  as  they  progressed 
their  teacher  became  more  communicative  and  engaged  them  in 
most  interesting  talks  on  biological  philosophy. 

Le  Conte  comments  enthusiastically  on  Agassiz  as  a  greal 
teacher — one  of  those  who  are  greater  than  all  their  visible  re- 
sults, in  that  their  personalit}'  is  magnetic  and  their  spirit  and 
enthusiasm  contagious.  Xo  his  fifteen  months'  intimate  asso- 
ciation with  Agassiz  for  eight  or  ten  hours  daily,  in  all  his  ex- 
cursions with  Hall  in  the  fossiliferous  areas  of  New  York,  and 
along  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  and  Florida  in  zoological  re- 
search, he  ascribes  much  of  the  direction  and  success  of  his  later 
work. 

The  exploration  of  the  Florida  coral  reefs  with  Agassiz  was 
especially  fruitful,  and  he  dwells  upon  it  at  length.  He  was 
most  reluctant  to  leave  his  family,  but,  his  wife  urging  him  not 
to  miss  the  opportunity,  they  started  on  the  first  of  January, 
1851.  The  work  was  undertaken  at  the  request  of  Superintendent 
A.  D.  Bache,  of  the  Coast  Survey,  for  the  investigation  of  the 
laws  of  the  growth  of  coral  reefs,  which  render  navigation  in 
the  waters  of  southern  Florida  very  hazardous  to  shipping.  Le 
Conte  and  Agassiz'  son  Alexander,  then  sixteen,  went  as  assist- 

161 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OP    SCIENCES. 

ants,  the  expenses  being  borne  by  the  Government.  They  left 
Cambridge  in  a  snowstorm,  but  during  most  of  the  six  days  of 
the  voyage  to  Key  West  they  sailed  in  summer  seas,  with  excel- 
lent opportunities  for  observing  marine  life,  from  sharks  to  the 
exquisite  Physalias  and  growths  of  corals. 

They  worked  incessantly,  "sometimes  visiting  the  reefs  in  a 
Government  steamer,  sometimes  exploring  the  Everglades  in 
one  direction,  sometimes  the  Dry  Tortugas  in  another — always 
observing,  noting,  and  gathering  specimens.  Sometimes  for 
several  days  we  would  be  out  all  day  on  the  reefs  collecting, 
generally  waist-deep  m  the  water;  then  for  several  days  we 
would  study  our  specimens  with  the  microscope,  draw,  and  pack 
away.  In  the  evenings  we  would  gather  in  Agassiz'  room  and 
discuss  the  day's  work  and  the  tonclusions  to  be  drawn  there- 
from. I  never  saw  any  one  work  like  Agassiz;  for  fourteen 
hours  a  day  he  would  work  under  high  pressure,  smoking  furi- 
ously all  the  time.  The  harder  he  worked,  the  faster  he  con- 
sumed cigars."  They  were  greatly  helped  in  their  collecting  by 
the  sailors  and  'longshore  population,  three  or  four  hundred  of 
whom  took  part  in  the  task,  and  were  greatly  pleased  when 
Agassiz  manifested  "almost  childish  glee"  at  some  new  dis- 
covery of  theirs. 

Longer  excursions  were  made  by  the  party  on  board  a  Coast 
Survey  steamer  commanded  by  Captain  (subsequently  Admiral) 
John  Rodgers,  and  in  a  sailing  vessel  commanded  by  Captain 
Frye.  In  the  latter  they  visited  the  Marquesas  and  the  Dry 
Tortugas.  From  the  latter  point  he  was  detailed  by  Agassiz, 
with  Dr.  Jones,  to  explore  a  small  island  ten  miles  away,  where 
the  vessel  was  becalmed  for  two  days.  Le  Conte  enjo3'ed  the 
leisure  time  by  bathing  and  diving  in  the  clear  warm  water, 
gathering  Gorgonias  and  sponges  from  the  sea-bottom.  Going 
back  to  t lie  fort  in  a  boat^  he  noted  the  killing  of  the  new  growths 
of  the  Madrepore  corals  on  which  the  boat  grounded,  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  annual  depression  of  the  water  level;  thus  furnish- 
ing a  basis  for  the  determination  of  the  age  of  coral  reefs  and 
islands.  On  his  arrival  at  the  fort  he  found  that  Agassiz  had 
made  the  same  observation  during  his  absence,  on  reefs  of 
Maeandrina. 

The  evenings  on  the  steamer  around  the  dining-table  Le  Conte 

162 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

mentions  as  specially  enjoyable,  as  there  were  on  board  several 
scientific  men  connected  with  the  Coast  Survey,  among  whom 
he  mentions  J.  E.  Hilgard  and  Count  Pourtales.  On  one  occa- 
sion Agassiz  expressed  himself  quite  forcibly  regarding  the  in- 
tolerance of  society  in  America,  he  having  experienced  the  effects 
of  the  odium  theologicum  on  account  of  his  views  on  the  diver- 
sity of  the  origin  of  man;  and  he  commended  Austria  as  the 
country  where  a  man  of  science  could  utter  his  views  most  freely, 
so  long  as  he  let  politics  alone. 

The  party  left  Key  West  for  Cambridge  after  a  stay  of  six 
weeks,  passing  from  summer  to  winter  in  the  course  of  a  few 
days. 

The  main  scientific  results  of  this  expedition  were  published 
by  Agassiz  inHhe  Eeport  of  the  Coast  Survey  for  1851;  some 
extensions  of  the  same  were  by  Le  Conte  himself  read  at  the 
meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  in  1856,  and  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  that  body, 
and  also  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  for  January,  1857. 
This  pul)lication  Le  Conte  considers  to  have  been  his  first  really 
scientific  paper. 

The  rest  of  tlic  yeai*  was  passed  at  Cambridge  in  study,  as 
before,  only  even  more  earnestly.  In  addition  to  zoology  and 
geology,  Le  Conte  took  a  course  of  botany  under  Asa  Gray.  He 
and  Jones  still  had  the  advantage  of  having  Agassiz  almost  to 
themselves,  some  wealthy  New  York  youths  who  joined  the  class 
finding  themselves  out  of  their  depth  and  leaving  very  soon. 
Tn  May  the  two  friends  wont  with  Agassiz  to  study  the  New 
York  Paleozoic  in  the  Catskill  and  Mohawk  region,  this  being 
the  first  field  work  in  geology  done  by  Le  Conte. 

In  June,  Agassiz  suggested  that  the  two  students  should  take 
degrees  at  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School,  which  was  then  in 
its  first  year  and  for  which  it  was  desired  to  make  a  showing. 
Although  already  possessed  of  three  degrees,  Le  Conte  concluded 
to  take  another  under  the  auspices  of  Agassiz,  and  took  as  the 
subject  of  his  thesis  the  Homologies  of  the  Eadiata.  Upon  this 
thesis  he  bestowed  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  work.  He  was 
examined  on  it  by  Agassiz,  and  also  publicly  by  him  and  Wyman 
on  zoology  and  geolog;\\  Thus  Joseph  Le  Conte,  Lewis  Jones, 
David  A.  Wells,  and  John  D.  Eunkle  formed  the  first  graduating 
(18)  163 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

class  of  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School,  and  probably  the  first 
strictly  postgraduate  class  in  the  United  States.  Le  Conte's 
thesis^  however,  never  reached  publication,  the  manuscript  being 
destroyed  in  the  burning  of  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  at  the 
end  of  "Sherman's  raid. 

Le  Conte,  however,  did  not  stop  at  graduation.  He  continued 
work  in  Agassiz'  laboratory  and  excursions,  or  by  himself.  The 
"galaxy  of  stars"  then  at  Harvard  was  so  attractive  and  stimu- 
lating that  he  hesitated  to  leave.  There  were  Agassiz,  Guyot, 
Wyman,  Gray,  Peirce,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Felton,  Emerson, 
•  and  also  Eichard  Dana,  whom  he  met  three  times  daily  at  meals. 
Moreover,  Boston  being  near  by,  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
hearing  and  seeing  the  great  artists  of  the  time,  such  as  Jenny 
Lind,  Parodi,  and  others,  and  of  attending  the  meetings  of  sci- 
entific bodies. 

Le  Conte  designates  as  the  third  critical  mental  period  of  his 
life  the  fifteen  months  of  his  study  with  Louis  Agassiz,  and  here 
discusses  ■  briefly  the  points  (more  elaborately  presented  later, 
in  a  memorial  address  made  at  San  Francisco)  in  which  Agassiz' 
methods  of  study  were  novel  and  epoch-making  in  the  natural 
sciences.  The  new  departure  most  widely  recognized  is  his  dem- 
onstration of  the  stupendous  agency  of  glaciers  in  shaping  the 
present  surface  of  the  earth;  but  more  fundamental  than  this 
achievement  is  the  introduction  of  the  study  of  nature  itself  in 
the  development  of  the  organic  world,  instead  of  mere  labora- 
tory experimentation.  The  latter  method  is  all  right  for  inor- 
ganic nature,  but  in  the  development  of  organized  beings  experi- 
mentation introduces  abnormal  factors,  and  the  observation  of 
nature  itself  is  first  in  order. 

"There  are  three  subordinate  series  or  methods  leading  to 
similar  results;  these  are  the  natural-history  series,  the  embry- 
onic seri<js,  and  the  geological  or  palseontological  series.  By  the 
first  method  Cuvier  and  his  colaborers  perfected  comparison  in 
the  natural-history  series,  laying  the  foundation  of  scientific 
zoology;  Agassiz  and  von  Baer  extended  the  method  of  com- 
parison into  the  embryonic  and  geological  series  and  into  the 
relation  of  the  three  series  to  each  other.  Agassiz'  work  and 
Agassiz'  method  prepared  the  whole  ground  for  the  modem 
doctrine  of  evolution,  only  his  was  an  evolution  not  by  organic 

164 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

forces  acting  within,  but  according  to  an  intelligent  plan  from 
without — an  evolution  not  by  transmutation  of  species,  but  by 
substitution  of  one  created  species  for  another."  But  he  re- 
garded the  cause  of  evolution  as  being  beyond  the  domain  of 
science  and  all  attempts  at  a  causal  theory  as  being  at- least 
premature. 

Le  Conte  adds  that  Agassiz'  work  and  method  are  the  only 
foundation  of  the  possible  scientific  sociology,  and  that  in  this 
case  also  three  different  series,  corresponding  to  those  in  the 
lower  natural  organic  world,  can  be  worked  out.  The  first  series 
is  that  exhibited  in  different  nations  and  races  in  various  stages, 
as  now  existing  in  different  places;  the  second,  that  showing 
the  various  stages  in  the  advance  of  one  and  the  same  nation 
from  barbarism  to  civilization,  corresponding  to  the  embryonic 
series;  and,  third,  that  exhibiting  the  slow  onward  progress  of 
the  whole  human  race  through  the  several  ages  now  recognized. 
He  mentions  Herbert  Spencer  as  having  taken  the  lead  in  this 
line-  of  investigation. 

COLLEGE  AND  UNIVERSITY  CAREER  OF  LE  CONTE. 

Leaving  Cambridge  after  fifteen  months  of  residence  and 
study,  Le  Conte,  after  paying  a  visit  to  his  uncle  at  New  York, 
in  October  took  the  steamer  for  Savannah.  On  arriving  he 
learned  of  the  accidental  death  of  his  eldest  brother,  Lewis. 
After  some  months  passed  at  the  plantation,  Le  Conte  received 
a  call  to  a  professorship  of  "the  Sciences'^  at  Oglethorpe  Uni- 
versity, at  Midway,  Georgia.  He  was  to  teach  all  the  sciences 
except  astronomy,  and  all  for  a  thousand  dollars.  But  he  con- 
cluded that  he  must  now  begin  his  life-work  and  accepted, 
teaching  mechanics,  physics,  chemistry,  geology,  and  botany. 
Zoology,  for  which  he  had  specially  prepared  himself,  was  no 
part  of  the  curriculum,  and,  moreover,  there  was  no  laboratory, 
so  the  work  was  almost  wholly  intellectual;  but  he  felt  that  he 
made  a  successful  teacher. 

The  previous  year  his  cousin,  Lewis  Jones,  had  been  appointed 
professor  of  geology  and  natural  history  at  the  University  of 
Georgia,  at  Athens — a  position  Le  Conte  had  also  desired — 
with  double  the  salary.  Jones  did  not  get  along  well  with  the 
president,  and  after  holding  the  chair  for  a  year  resigned  in 

165 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

disgust.  John  Le  Conte  being  also  a  professor  at  Athens,  Joseph 
wrote  to  him  and  found  to  his  disappointment  that  French  was 
to  be  superadded  to  the  duties  of  the  chair.  However,  as  he 
read  French  with  ease,  he  concluded  to  "qualify  himself  by 
taking  lessons  in  speaking  from  a  good  native  French  teacher. 
He  was  elected  to  the  complex  chair  in  December,  1852,  and 
began  his  duties  in  January  following.  A  French  teacher  being 
elected  after  six  months,  he  was  able  thereafter  to  restrict  him- 
self to  geology  ^nd  botany,  with  a  Monday-morning  class  in 
natural  theology.  This  latter  class  he  enjoyed,  as  it  gave  him 
the  opportunity  to  bring  out  the  general  laws  of  animal  struc- 
ture as  evidence  of  a  divine  plan;  otherwise  zoology  formed  no 
part  of  his  subjects,  and  to  this  he  did  not  object,  as  the  col- 
leges were  not  at  that  time  prepared  for  the  teaching  as  prac- 
ticed by  Agassiz.  Altogether,  with  his  brother  John,  McCay, 
and  later  Leroy  Brown  and  C.  S.  Venable  as  his  colleagues,  he 
was  well  pleased  with  his  situation  at  Athens. 

During  the  long  winter  vacation  of  1854  Le  Conte  went  to 
Philadelphia  with  his  family,  and  there  met  many  prominent 
men,  among  others  Lea,  Phillips,  Elwin,  and  John  Fraser.  The 
latter  one  evening  brought  with  him  a  then  new  instrument,  the 
stereoscope,  showing  its  effects  and  elucidating  the  theory  of 
Wheatstone,  which  attributes  the  result  to  a  mental  (subjective) 
combination  of  the  two  images.  Le  Conte  noted  that  when  he 
looked  at  the  distant  lines  of  the  images  the  nearer  ones  appeared 
doubled,  and  vice  versa,  proving  that  the  effect  is  a  physical  one ; 
and  he  so  stated  to  the  company  assembled.  They,  however, 
thought  him  a  very  forward  and  disputatious  young  man  for 
daring  to  dissent  from  Wheatstone.  He  did  not  publish  his 
conclusions,  which  were  a  year  after  brought  out  by  Briicke  in 
Germany. 

Going  afterwards  to  Cambridge,  they  were  invited  by  Agassiz 
to  stay  at  his  house,  where  they  passed  a  delightful  week,  meeting 
also  many  distinguished  men. 

During  the  four  years  Le  Conte  remained  at  Athens  (1852  to 
1856)  he  published  a  number  of  papers,  popular,  scientific,  edu- 
cational, and  philosophical.  The  most  important  of  these  was 
that  "On  the  Agency  of  the  Gulf  Stream  in  the  Formation  of 


1(56 


JOSfiPH    LEJ    COiTTfi. 

the  Peninsula  of  Florida/'  based  on  his  own  and  Agassi//  obsei'- 
vations,  which  created  marked  interest. 

Between  1854  and  1856  administrative  difficulties  led  to  the 
resignation  of  several  of  the  best  men  of  the  faculty  of  the 
Athens  institution  and  the  final  removal  of  all  by  the  board 
of  trustees.  Le  Conte  immediately  applied  for  the  professorship 
of  chemistry  and  geology  in  tlie  College  of  South  Carolina,  then 
vacant.  He  was  elected,  and  assumed  the  duties  of  the  chair 
in  Januar}^,  1857.  He  thus  again  became  the  colleague  of  his 
brother  John  and  of  McCay,  who  had  become  president.  In 
this  position  he  remained  until,  after  the  Civil  War,  he  was 
called  to  California. 

In  the  interval  between  his  resignation  from  the  University  of 
Georgia  and  removal  to  Columbia,  he  was  invited  by  Prof. 
Joseph  Henry  to  deliver  six  lectures  at  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution. Three  of  these  were  on  "Coral  Reefs"  and  three  on 
"Coal."  The  latter  were  subsequently  written  out  by  him  and 
published  in  the  Smithsonian  Eeport  for  1857.  They  excited 
a  good  deal  of  interest  and  were  translated  and  published  in 
French.  He  there  brought  out  some  views  on  the  affinities  of 
Gymnosperms,  which  anticipated  by  thirty  years  the  same 
brought  out  later  by  Lester  Ward  and  Engler. 

The  work  at  the  South  Carolina  College  was  very  exacting  at 
the  time  and  gave  no  opportunity  for  original  work,  he  having 
also  had  to  take  a  class  in  mathematics.  Shortly  there  occurred 
a  cataclysm  similar  to  that  at  Athens,  ending  likewise  in  a 
wholesale  resignation  of  the  faculty,  of  whom,  however,  the  two 
Le  Contes  and  one  other  were  immediately  reelected  by  the 
trustees.  The  college  was  thus  disbanded  in  May,  leaving  four 
months  vacant  until  the  regular  opening  in  October.  Most  of 
this  time  was  passed  by  Le  Conte  and  his  family  at  the  Virginia 
Springs,  where  they  met  many  of  the  faculty  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  among  whom  Le  Conte  mentions  McGuffy  as 
specially  interesting.  In  August  both  Le  Contes  went  to  Mon- 
treal, to  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  at  which  the  writer  of  this  memoir  first 
became  acquainted  with  them.  Joseph  Le  Conte  mentions  as 
the  prominent  event  of  that  meeting  the  reading  by  James  Hall, 
the  retiring  president,  of  a  paper  on  "The  Formation  of  Moun- 

167 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

tain  Chains  by  Sedimentation/^  containing  a  new  and  very  im- 
portant idea,  but  imperfectly  set  forth,  so  as  to  be  hardly  un- 
derstood, although  it  forms  the  basis  of  our  present  views. 

Most  of  the  former  faculty  of  the  South  Carolina  institution 
having  been  reelected  in  September,  a  little  later  eTudge  A.  B. 
Longstreet  was  elected  president.  Their  success  of  the  year  be- 
fore having  made  the  students  somewhat  turbulent,  another 
strenuous  period  was  foreseen  and  realized,  resulting  in  the 
suspension  of  nearly  half  the  students  for  one  term.  Most  of 
these  subsequently  returned  under  rigid  conditions,  and  Le 
Conte  comments  upon  the  rigid  sense  of  honor  and  veracity  that 
manifested  itself  among  the  students  on  all  these  occasions. 

Stimulated  by  the  intellectual  and  social  surroundings  in 
Columbia,  where  he  met  daily  such  men  as  Dr.  Thornwell,  Dr. 
Palmer,  Wm.  C.  Preston,  Wade  Hampton,  and  others,  he  wrote 
between  1857  and  1860  many  articles,  mostly  of  literary  and 
philosophical  nature,  such  as  "The  Place  of  Geology  in  a  Course 
of  Education,''  "The  Relation  of  Morphology  to  Fine  Art," 
"The  General  Principles  of  a  Liberal  Education,"  "Female 
Education,"  "The  Eolation  of  School,  College,  and  University 
to  One  Another  and  to  Active  Life,"  "The  Relation  of  Biology 
to  Sociology,"  and  "The  Nature  and  Uses  of  Fine  Art."  The 
first  four  of  these  were  given  as  addresses  before  academic  audi- 
ences; the  others,  put  into  a  drawer  for  the  time,  were  subse- 
quently published  in  various  reviews  and  magazines. 

In  pure  science  he  wrote  and  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1859,  his  orig- 
inal paper  on  "The  Correlation  of  Physical,  Chemical,  and  Vital 
Force  and  the  Conservation  of  Force  in  Vital  Phenomena." 
This  paper  created  great  interest  among  scientific  men  at  the 
time;  it  was  widely  republished,  both  in  America  and  in  Euro- 
pean Journals,  and  also  in  the  International  Scientific  Series. 

During  a  summer  vacation  spent  in  the  mountains  of  ISTorth 
Carolina,  Le  Conte  met  Langdon  Chevis,  a  planter  on  the  South 
Carolina  coast,  who,  having  read  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation," 
heartily  endorsed  the  origin  of  species  by  transmutation  of  those 
previously  existing,  while  Le  Conte  held  Agassiz'  view  of  crea- 
tion according  to  a  preordained  plan.  Chevis  combated  so  suc- 
cessfully he  Conte's  objections  as  to  make  a  strong  impression 
on  his  mind,  in  advance  of  the  publication  of  Darwin's  book  on 

168 


.tOSEPH   LE   CONT^. 

the  subject;  but  Chevis  did  not  think  of  publishing  his  views*, 
which,  as  Le  Conte  remarks,  was  a  general  habit  in  the  old 
South  and  prevented  him,  as  well,  from  publishing,  first,  a  num- 
ber of  observations  subsequently  l)rought  out  by  others. 

He  refers  with  much  admiration  to  Donati's  comet  of  1859, 
but  did  not,  like  not  a  few  people  both  in  and  out  of  the  South, 
suspect  in  it  the  forerunner  of  the  civil  commotion  then  im- 
pending. 

WAR  EXPERIENCES. 

Le  Conte  devotes  50  pages  of  his  autobiography  to  the  events 
of  the  Civil  War  and  the  graphic  relation  of  his  personal  experi- 
ences in  connection  with  it,  which  were  both  extensive  and  ex- 
citing. Of  these  experiences  a  short  outline  only  can,  of  course, 
be  given  here. 

Like  a  great  many  thoughtful  men  in  the  South,  especially 
those  not  in  political  life,  Le  Conte  was  at  first  exceedingly  re- 
luctant to  join  in  a  movement  which  foreshadowed  the  dis- 
ruption of  the  Union;  doubtless  the  more  as  from  his  personal 
knowledge  of  the  North  he  must  have  been  fully  aware  of  the 
futility  of  the  prediction  and  assertions  made  by  the  professional 
agitators  for  secession,  that  "the  Northern  mudsills  have  no 
stomachs  for  fighting,"  and  that  *'one  Southerner  can  whip  three 
Yankees  any  time.'^  Had  the  dreadful  conflict  which  resulted 
been  generally  foreseen,  these  agitators  would  not  have  had  such 
easy  work  in  carrying  the  masses  with  them.  But,  as  Le  Conte 
says,  it  came  to  be  a  spiritual  contagion,  and  the  final  result  was 
enthusiastic  unanimity  of  sentiment  throughout  the  South,  with 
a  few  honest  exceptions.  Le  Conte  characterizes  as  absurd  the 
designation  of  the  Civil  War  as  the  "War  of  the  Eebellion."  It 
was  a  war  between  two  fully  organized  States,  which  was  hon- 
estly fought  out  to  a  finish  and  the  result  frankly  accepted.  But 
"to  us  it  was  literally  a  life-and-death  struggle  for  national  ex- 
istence, and  doubtless  the  feeling  was  equally  honest  and  earnest 
on  the  other  side."  In  this  spirit  Le  Conte  took  up  and  par- 
ticipated in  the  contest  so  far  as  in  him  lay,  and  his  war  ex- 
periences are  highly  interesting  reading. 

The  South  Carolina  College  went  on  quietly  during  1860- 
1861,  but  in  the  spring  of  the  latter  year  the  siege  of  Fort 

169 


JSIATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 

Sumter  caused  a  large  number  of  students  to  leave  college  to 
join  the  army;  nevertheless  the  college  exercises  went  on.  In 
the  spring  of  1862  the  increasing  stress  of  the  war  left  the 
college  with  only  40  or  50  students.  In  June,  1862,  after  the 
seven-days  battles  in  Virginia,  there  came  a  call  for  all  men 
above  eighteen  years,  and  perforce  the  college  was  disbanded, 
all  the  students  volunteering.  Both  the  brothers  Le  Conte  went 
on  to  Eichmond  to  help  nurse  the  sick  and  wounded,  among 
whom  was  a  brother  of  Joseph's  wife.  He  himself  took  the 
typhoid  fever.  After  three  weeks'  illness  he  and  his  brother-in- 
law  returned  to  Columbia. 

Wliile  the  professors'  salaries  were  continued,  they  proved 
woefully  inadequate,  on  account  of  the  depreciation  of  the  Con- 
federate currency;  so  they  had  to  complement  them  by  outside 
work.  In  October^  1862,  Le  Conte  was  appointed  one  of  the 
arbitrators  to  determine  the  right  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment to  the  niter  caves  in  the  several  States,  and  sat  on  the  case 
in  Atlanta  for  three  weeks.  In  1863,  during  the  height  of  the 
conflict,  he  wrote  the  paper  on  "The  Mature  and  Uses  of  the 
Fine  Arts ;"  but,  anxious  to  render  some  effective  service,  he 
took  the  position  of  chemist  to  a  large  manufactory  of  medi- 
cines for  the  army,  which  was  established  in  the  suburbs  of 
Columbia,  and  so  continued  for  eighteen  months.  In  1864  he 
was  appointed  chemist  of  the  N^iter  and  Mining  Bureau,  with 
the  rank  and  pay  of  major.  Under  this  mandate  he  explored  in 
summer  all  the  niter  caves  and  beds  in  the  Gulf  States  of  the 
States  west  of  Mississippi,  as  well  as  the  iron  mines  and  furnaces 
at  Shelbyville,  Alabama.  Eeturning  to  Columbia  in  September, 
he  sent  a  report  to  the  chief  of  the  Niter  Bureau  at  Eichmond. 

At  this  time  Sherman's  army  was  moving  from  Chattanooga 
towards  Atlanta  and  the  coast.  Le  Conte's  widowed  sister  and 
•  family  and  one  of  his  own  daughters  being  then  on  a  plantation 
near  Halifax,  south  of  Savannah,  he  set  out  to  rescue  them;  but 
within  ten  miles  of  Savannah  he  had  to  turn  back  to  Columbia, 
whence,  by  a  detour  of  850  miles  to  southward,  he  again  at- 
tempted to  reach  his  sister.  After  many  delays  from  hostile 
parties  and  natural  difficulties,  he  finally  reached  her  house  one 
morning;  but,  as  it  was  clearly  impossible  to  escape  in  wagons, 
he  started  out  with  his  daughter  on  an  old,  broken-down  horse 

170 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

abandoned  by  the  Federals,  lent  him  by  a  negro.  They  soon 
found  themselves  cut  off,  and  after  hiding  in  the  woods  for  some 
time  and  having  several  narrow  escapes  from  capture,  they  were 
advised  by  a  negro  that  several  wagons  had  come  from  the  Con- 
federate lines  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  carry  away  the  ladies. 
As  all,  however,  could  not  go  at  once,  Le  Conte  had  to  return 
for  his  sister  later,  the  entire  party  to  meet  at  Macon.  This  trip 
proved  an  arduous  one.  At  Macon  they  were  materially  assisted 
by  a  young  man  in  Confederate  uniform,  who  seemed  to  know 
everybody  in  both  armies.  Leaving  the  party  at  Augusta,  he  said 
he  would  meet  them  again  at  Columbia,  "whither  the  Federal 
army  was  sure  to  go."  They  finally  reached  Columbia,  nearly 
two  months  after  Le  Conte  had  started  out  on  his  voyage  of 
rescue. 

The  situation  at  Columbia  being  very  precarious  under  the 
rapid  advance  of  Sherman's  army  and  the  bitterness  entertained 
by  the  Federals  toward  the  "cradle  of  secession,"  Le  Conte  re- 
ceived orders  from  Richmond  to  ship  the  chemical  laboratory 
to  that  place.  A  universal  panic  prevailed  and  the  departure 
of  army  trains  put  him  on  guard  in  respect  to  his  family;  and 
the  young  man  who  had  previously  traveled  with  them  was  on 
hand,  as  promised,  and  advised  them  to  save  at  once  what  they 
specially  valued.  And  so  lecture  notes,  manuscripts,  &c.,  went 
off  with  the  belongings  of  the  Niter  Bureau.  The  two  Le  Conte 
brothers,  being  Confederate  officers,  could  not  remain  without 
being  taken  and  treated  as  prisoners  of  war.  Under  the  distant 
booming  of  Sherman's  guns,  they  started  with  five  heavily 
loaded  wagons,  accompanied  and  greatly  handicapped  by  twenty- 
two  negroes  and  their  families  and  the  deep  mud  caused  by  the 
rains.  They  were  finally  discovered  by  Federals,  who,  after 
rifling  all  their  trunks  and  packages,  set  the  remnants  on  fire 
and  watched  them  burn.  At  this  juncture  John  Le  Conte,  find- 
ing it  impossible  to  escape  with  his  son,  who  was  just  conva- 
lescing from  a  serious  illness,  gave  himself  up.  Ultimately 
Joseph  and  Captain  Green,  their  traveling  companion,  learned 
from  the  negroes  that  several  parties  were  searching  for  them, 
and  therefore  concluded  to  escape  during  the  night.  Walking 
rapidly  and  silently  towards  Columbia,  they  soon  heard  Federals 
galloping  on  their  trail  and  quickly  hid  behind  a  "worm"  fence, 

171 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCE^. 

the  other  side  of  which  was  presently  selected  by  the  searching 
party  for  a  rest.  But  after  half  an  hour  they  left  on  the  back 
trail. 

After  several  days  of  hiding  in  the  pine  woods,  they  finally 
heard  that  the  Federals  had  left  Columbia,  and  with  other  re- 
turning fugitives  they  took  the  road  to  the  city. 

Entering  Columbia,  Le  Conte  found  all  along  the  main  street 
a  heap  of  ruins,  but  the  college  buildings  had  been  spared.  At 
his  home  he  found  all  living  and  well,  but  much  exhausted  by 
the  terrible  experience  they  had  undergone  in  the  burning  of  the 
city,  although  not  a  soldier  had  crossed  their  threshold.  So  the 
goods  they  laboriously  carried  off  and  lost  would  have  been  safe 
in  the  house.  The  mysterious  young  man  had  slept  in  the  base- 
ment, and  had  authoritatively  protected  the  house.  Whether  he 
was  a  Confederate  or  a  Federal  spy,  or  both,  was  never  made 
quite  clear. 

The  first  year  following  the  end  of  the  war  was  a  trying  one. 
For  a  week  the  family  lived  on  provisions  that  had  been  saved 
from  the  sack  of  the  city  by  the  negroes  that  lived  on  their  lot. 
Then  for  a  while  they  drew  rations  from  the  city,  and  gradually 
supplies  came  in  from  the  country.  At  one  time  Le  Conte  ob- 
tained from  the  Federal  commander  permission  to  go  down  the 
river  on  an  abandoned  flatboat  to  obtain  corn  for  the  city  from 
the  plantations  below,  and  brought  back  several  thousand 
bushels,  of  which  one  hundred  was  allowed  him  as  a  perquisite 
for  himself  and  his  brother  John.  Everybody  of  course  wore 
'Tiomespun,^'  or  soldiers'  clothes  picked  up  from  the  hospitals. 

Worse  than  these  privations  was  the  "reconstruction"  period 
which  followed,  with  negro  domination,  aggravated  by  "carpet- 
bag" officials  and  their  swarms  of  predatory  followers.  Of  this 
period  Le  Conte  forbears  to  speak  in  detail. 

Having  lost  everything  but  his  land  in  the  war,  the  resumption 
of  college  work  in  1866  greatly  relieved  him  by  the  salary  being 
also  revived.  Instruction  in  the  college  was  now  made  as 
"practical"  as  possible,  he  himself  supplementing  his  chemistry 
course  with  short  courses  on  pharmacy  and  agriculture.  Mean- 
while Le. Conte  also  resumed  his  outside  scientific  activity.  In 
1866-1867  he  gave  six  lectures  on  "Coal  and  Petroleum"  in  the 
Peabody  Institute  at  Baltimore  and  wrote  three  papers  on  the 

172 


JOSEPH   LE   CONTE. 

"Adjustments  of  the  Eye,"  "Eotation  of  the  Eye  on  the  Optic 
Axis,"  and  "The  Horopter."  These  were  published  first  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science  and  in  the  Philosophical  Maga- 
zine, and  subsequently,  with  nine  additional  articles,  were  em- 
bodied ill  ttie  volume  "Sight"  of  the  International  Scientific 
Series,  in  1880  and  1897. 

A  measurably  satisfactory  political  and  social  condition  ex- 
isted until  the  establishment  of  the  permanent  "civil"  govern- 
ment, which  became  more  and  more  intolerable  until,  in  1876, 
by  an  uprising  of  the  people,  good  government  was  restored ;  but 
in  the  meantime  a  good  many  of  the  best  men  emigrated  to 
escape  the  intolerable  misgovernment,  and  the  two  Le  Contes 
themselves  thought  of  trying  their  fortunes  with  Maximilian  of 
Mexico.  Just  then  they  heard  of  the  organization  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California  and  applied  for  positions  there.  Both  were 
elected  in  November  and  December,  1868,  and  moved  to  Cali- 
fornia the  following  year. 

LIFE   AND   WORK  IN   CALIFORNIA. 

Leaving  Columbia  after  thirteen  years  of  service,  Joseph  Le 
Conte  took  his  family  to  California  on  the  transcontinental  rail- 
road, then  newly  opened,  and  was  met  at  Oakland  by  his  brother 
John,  who  had  preceded  him  and  was  acting  as  president  pend- 
ing the  election  of  a  permanent  incumbent  by  the  regents.  Both 
entered  on  their  active  duties  on  September  20,  1869,  with  a 
total  of  38  students  in  attendance.  At  the  university,  which  was 
then  located  in  Oakland,  Joseph  Le  Conte's  lectures  were  oo 
geology,  zoology,  and  botany. 

He  was  greatly  impressed  and  interested  by  the  novelty  of  the 
country  and  climate  and  the  busy,  active  population;  and  in 
order  to  become  acquainted  he  frequently  lectured  publicly,  thus 
altogether  finding  his  intellectual  activity  stimulated  to  the  high- 
est degree.  At  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of  San  Francisco  he 
gave  about  twenty  lectures  on  various  scientific  subjects,  and  at 
Oakland  on  Sundays  he  spoke  on  the  "Relations  of  Science  to 
Religion,"  a  subject  which  continued  prominent  in  his  mind  to 
the  last.  The  stenographic  report  of  the  Oakland  lectures 
formed  the  basis  of  his  first  book  ("Religion  and  Science"), 
published  by  the  Appletons  not  long  afterwards. 

173 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

Geology  had  now  become  his  favorite  department,  but  as  the 
understanding  of  the  geology  of  a  new  country  requires  more 
time  and  travel  than  he  was  able  to  bestow  upon  it,  his  scien- 
tific activity  continued  specially  in  the  line  of  binocular  vision. 
He  thus  followed  up  his  first  paper  on  tlie  subject;  written  in 
reply  to  the  papers  of  Claparede  and  Helmholtz,  by  three  others 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  in  1871,  the  last 
("On  the  Theory  of  Binocular  Relief")  being  also  published  in 
the  Archives  des  Sciences.  It  gave  rise  to  discussions  with 
Pictet  and  Tyndall,  in  which,  according  to  the  present  state  of 
the  subject,  Le  Conte's  views  were  fully  sustained. 

During  the  summer  vacation  of  1870  he,  in  company  with 
Prof.  Frank  Soule  and  eight  students  of  the  university,  under- 
took a  six  weeks'  camping  trip  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  he 
considers  almost  an  era  in  his  life.  It  was  made  in  the  roughest 
style,  without  even  a  tent,  each  man  carrying  his  bedding,  &c., 
behind  his  saddle.  They  visited  "the  Yosemite,  the  High  Sierra, 
Lake  Mono  and  the  neighboring  volcanoes,  and  Lake  Tahoe. 
The  trip  was  thoroughly  enjoyed  by  all,  and  the  opportunity 
afforded  him  for  the  study  of  mountain  structure  and  origin 
formed  the  basis  for  ten  or  eleven  papers  subsequently  published 
by  Le  Conte.  A  narrative  of  this  expedition  was  published  in 
1875,  under  the  title  "A  Journal  of  Ramblings  througli  the 
High  Sierra,"  which  attracted  much  attention  and,  being  soon 
out  of  print,  was  republished  in  1890  by  the  Sierra  Club  of  San 
Francisco. 

.  The  summer  vacation  of  1871  was  utilized  by  him  for  a  trip 
through  Oregon,  Washington,  and  British  Columbia,  observing 
systematically  the  many  important  geological  features  of  that 
region;  these  observations  he  supplemented  by  a  trip,  taken  more 
leisurely,  in  1873,  to  eastern  Oregon,  including  the  Columbia 
and  Deschutes  rivers  and,  the  John  Day  region.  These  explora- 
tions gave  him  the  material  for  what  he  considers  one  of  his 
most  important  papers,  that  on  "The  Great  Lava  Flood  of  the 
West  and  the  Age  and  Structure  of  the  Cascade  Mountains." 
This  paper  made  known  for  the  first  time  the  enormous  extent 
of  what  is  probably  the  greatest  continuous  eruptive  sheet  in  the 
world,  and  gave  its  beginning  as  probably  at  the  end  of  the 
Miocene. 

174 


JOSEPH    LB   CONTE. 

During  the  fall  of  1873,  after  his  return  from  the  second 
trip  to  the '  Yosemite,  Louis  Agassiz  visited  him  in  Oakland, 
having  come  around  Cape  Horn  in  the  Coast  Survey  steamer 
Hassler.  This  visit  was  of  course  a  great  enjoyment  to  Le  Conte. 
Agassiz  died  in  Cambridge  a  year  later,  and  Le  Conte  made  one 
of  the  memorial  addresses  before  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in 
San  Francisco,  as  already  stated. 

During  the  summer  vacation  of  1874  he,  with  his  family, 
spent  some  time  at  Lake  Tahoe,  and  availed  himself  of  the 
opportunity  to  study  the  tracks  of  ancient  glaciers  in  the  region, 
with  their  moraines  and  lakelets.  The  results  of  these  observa- 
tions were  given  in  a  paper  "On  Some  of  the  Ancient  Glaciers 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada,"  published  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  in  1875.  He  also  at  that  time  visited  the  Comstock 
Lode,  which  formed  the  basis  of  four  or  five  papers  subsequently 
published. 

In  the  fall  of  1874  he,  with  others  of  the  university  faculty, 
took  up  residence  at  Berkeley,  the  permanent  site  of  the  insti- 
tution, then  consisting  of  a  few  houses,  but  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  in  1901,  a  town  of  15,000  inhabitants;  which  number  has 
now  (1906)  at  least  doubled.  He  always  greatly  admired  and 
enjoyed  the  site  of  the  university  and  town. 

During  the  summer  vacation  of  1875  he  again,  with  a  party  of 
university  men,  camped  in  the  High  Sierra.  Their  plan  had 
been  to  go,  via  Yosemite,  Lake  Mono,  and  Lake  Owen,  over  the 
Kearsarge  Pass  and  down  the  Kings  River  Canon;  but  an  acci- 
dent to  himself  prevented  Le  Conte  from  going  beyond  Lake 
Mono.  There  he  made  detailed  studies  of  the  volcanic  phe- 
nomena, the  results  of  which  were  afterwards  published  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science  in  a  paper  "On  the  Extinct  Vol- 
canoes about  Lake  Mono  and  Their  Relations  to  the  Glacial 
Drift."  During  this  year  he  was  elected  to  membership  in  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  most  important  paper  written  by  him  in  1876  was  "On 
the  Evidences  of  Horizontal  Crushing  in  the  Formation  of  the 
Coast  Ranges  of  California."  The  striking  contrast  between  the 
structure  and  details  of  the  origin  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  the 
Coast  Range  was  always  a  favorite  topic  with  him,  and  he  used 
to  cite  the  latter  as  an  irrefragable  proof  that,  whatever  differ- 

175 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

ence  of  opinion  there  might  be  as  to  the  cause  of  the  horizontal 
pressure,  no  one  seeing  the  phenomena  shown  in  the  Coast  Eange 
strata,  even  within  a  short  distance  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, could  question  the  fact  that  they  could  not  be  explained 
by  forces  acting  in  any  other  way. 

An  address  on  "The  True  Idea  of  a  University,"  made  during 
this  year,  at  commencement,  and  subsequently  republished  in  the 
Princeton  Review  and  the  University  of  California  Chronicle 
in  modified  form,  is  characteristic  of  Le  Conte's  ideals  in  respect 
to  the  means  and  methods  for  the  best  and  highest  intellectual 
and  moral  development,  so  far  as  this  can  be  accomplished  by 
secular  education. 

Shortly  after  the  writer's  arrival  at  the  university,  in  spring 
1875,  Le  Conte  asked  his  opinion  as  to  the  need  and  likelihood  of 
success  of  a  text-book  of  geology  which  should  embody  dynamic 
geology  as  its  chief  feature,  instead  of  being  in  the  main  his- 
toric, as  was  then  the  case  with  Dana's  large  book.  Having 
experienced,  w^hile  teaching  at  the  University  of  Michigan,  the 
great  need  of  such  a  work,  the  waiter  strongly  urged  upon  Le 
Conte  the  publication  of  such  a  book,  which  he  had  already 
begun  to  write  and  subsequently  pushed  vigorously  toward  com- 
pletion; so  that  in  1876,  when  he  went  east  to  visit  the  Centen- 
nial Exposition,  he  entered  upon  negotiations  with  the  Apple- 
tons  for  its  publication.  At  Philadelphia  he  was  especially  in- 
terested in  the  inspection  and  trial  of  the  telephones,  then  newly 
invented,  especially  that  of  Bell ;  which  occurred  in  the  presence 
of  Lord  Kelvin,  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Brazil,  and  other 
distinguished  men.  He  subsequently,  on  his  return  to  Berkeley, 
gave,  a  lecture  to  the  students  and  faculty  of  the  university,  in 
which  he  explained  the  principles  and  action  of  the  Bell  tele- 
phone, exciting  great  interest. 

Upon  The  completion  of  the  manuscript  of  the  "Elements  of 
Geolog/'  he,  in  April,  1877,  'sent  it  on  to  the  Appletons,  who 
agreed  to  publish  it  provided  that  he  would  personally  superin- 
tend the  making  of  the  engravings  and  the  printing.  He  went 
to  New  York  in  May  and  worked  very  hard  for  three  months. 
By  August  all  was  done  except  the  proof-reading  of  the  last 
half,  which  was  done  by  him  at  Berkeley.  The  book  was  pub- 
lished in  January,  1878,  and  was  from  the  beginning  very  suc- 

17G 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

cessful.  It  has  remained  a  standard  college  and  university 
text-book  ever  since,  and  has  gone  through  four  editions,  revised 
by  himself,  the  last  in  1902.  It  has  since  Le  Conte's  death  been 
revised  and  supplemented  so  as  to  include  the  latest  researches, 
by  Prof.  H.  Leroy  Fairchild,  of  Eochester.  Its  original  char- 
acter has,  however,  been  faithfully  preserved,  and  it  remains 
probably  the  most  widely  used  text-book  of  geology  in  the  Eng- 
lish language;  for,  although  no  written  treatise  could  even  ap- 
proximately represent  the  eminently  "live"  lectures  which  the 
book  embodies,  yet,  in  so  far  as  this  is  possible,  the  style  reflects 
everywhere  the  intensity  and  geniality  which  made  Le  Conte's 
lectures  so  deservedly  popular,  both  with  the  students  and  the 
public.  His  courses  always  varied  from  year  to  year,  never  be- 
coming stereotyped,  but  always  fresh  and  newly  interesting, 
even  to  those  who  had  heard  the  same  subjects  treated  by  him 
before;  and  he  always  prepared  himself  fully  for  each  lecture. 
In  this  personal  intensity  lay  the  secret  of  his  great  popularity 
and  influence  with  his  students,  and  he  states  emphatically  the 
principle,  now  at  last  becoming  widely  accepted  by  the  Ameri- 
can universities,  "that  investigation  should  never  be  separated 
from  teaching,  as  many  propose;  for  not  only  is  one  a  better 
teacher  for  being  an  investigator,  but  also  a  better  investigator 
for  being  a  teacher.  We  never  know  any  subject  perfectly  until 
we  teach  it."  To  his  intense  interest  in  his  subject,  and  in  his 
students,  Le  Conte  attributes  most  of  his  success  in  teaching, 
which  in  the  course  of  time  became  so  great  that  there  was  no 
lecture-room  in  the  university  sufficiently  large  to  hold  his  au- 
diences. These  came  from  all  the  nine  "colleges"  into  which  the 
university  differentiated  in  the  course  of  time,  with  the  twenty- 
four  hundred  students  actually  present  at  Berkeley  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  in  1901,  as  against  the  thirty-five  in  1873.  Le 
Conte  alludes  regretfully  to  the  diminished  efficiency  of  in- 
struction resulting  from  this  enormous  increase,  occurring 
simultaneously  all  over  the  United  States,  but  without  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  means  available  for  instruction,  and 
rendering  personal  contact  and  influence  of  instructors  with  the 
students  very  difficult. 

Among  the  influences  which  kept  up  his  wide,  active  interest 
in  many  directions,  he  mentions  among  his  colleagues  Hilgard, 

177 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

Moses,  and  Howison,  the  latter  especially,  with  whom  he  dif- 
fered quite  radically  in  many  points,  especially  as  regards  the 
scientific  as  contradistinguished  from  the  metaphysical  stand- 
point in  philosophy.  He  justly  attributes  a  great  intellectual 
stimulus  to  the  Philosophical  Union  established  by  Howison  in 
the  university,  where  he  with  others  frequently  held  ardent  dis- 
cussions on  philosophical  subjects.  Another  strong  stimulus  was, 
and  is  today,  the  "Berkeley  Club,"  founded  in  1873  by  President 
D.  C.  Gilman,  and  which  Le  Conte  considers  an  ideal  club  for 
intellectual  stimulation  and  broadening ;  consisting,  as  it  does, 
not  only  of  university  men  of  all  departments  of  knowledge,  but 
embracing  also  educated  men  of  all  pursuits,  professions,  and 
opinions.  It  is,  as  he  says,  a  club  of  diverse  spirits,  where  we 
may  get,  directly  and  without  much  labor,  the  best  results  of 
thought  in  other  departments.  It  is  therefore,  within  its  mem- 
bership, a  powerful  promoter  of  broadness  as  against  the  mod- 
ern tendency  to  excessive,  narrow,  and  premature  specialization, 
which  Le  Conte  considers  as  one  of  the  prime  evils  of  modern 
intellectual,  and  specially  of  scientific,  life,  productive  of  preju- 
dice, self-conceit,  and  lack  of  sympathy  between  diverse  pursuits. 
"The  Berkeley  Club  combines  the  best  features  of  both  social  and 
intellectual  clubs,  there  being  a  foi-tnightly  dinner,  and  after 
that  a  ]|aper  by  some  member  (in  rotation)  and  a  general  dis- 
cussion thereon."  It  was  doubtless  this  continual  friction  with 
diverse  opinions  that  led  him  to  decline  special  affiliation  with 
any  of  the  existing  denominational  churches,  though  tolerant 
and  sympathetic  toward  all  and  contriluiting  habitually  to  sev- 
eral of  their  number. 

It  Avas  in  this  attitude  of  mind,  gradually  matured  during 
the  thirty  years  of  his  residence  in  California,  that  the  greater 
part  of  his  intellectual  and  scientific  work,  of  which  the  enu- 
meration and  discussion  follows,  was  done. 

A  summary  historic  recital  of  his  chief  activities  during  his 
life  in  California  must  suffice,  in  order  to  leave  room  for  a  fuller 
connected  discussion  of  his  most  important  writings. 

In  1877  he  wrote  one  of  his  most  important  papers,  "On  the 
Critical  Periods  in  the  History  of  the  Earth,  and  the  Quaternary 
as  Such  a  Period."  This  idea  had  long  been  in  his  mind,  and  it 
was  subsequently  greatly    enlarged    by  his    discussion    of    the 

178 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

Ozarkian  or  Sierran  era  of  elevation  and  erosion,  published  in 
1900.  These  are  discussed  later.  In  the  same  year  he  wrote  his 
first  discussion  of  the  "Glycogenic  Function  of  the  Liver  and  Its 
Eelation  to  Vital  Force  and  Vital  Heat,"  which  was  expanded 
in  subsequent  publications  and  finally  summarized  also  in  his 
book  on  the  "Comparative  Physiology  and  Morphology  of 
Animals,"  issued  in  1900. 

In  1878  he  wrote  a  paper  in  reply  to  Captain  Button's  criti- 
cism of  his  "Contractional  Theory  of  Mountain  Formation," 
which  he  explained  more  fully.  In  the  summer  of  this  year  he 
.took  his  family  on  a  camping  trip  to  the  Yosemite  Valley  and 
Calaveras  Grove. 

The  summer  of  1879  he  devoted  to  an  extended  but  rather 
pleasure  tour  with  his  wife  to  Oregon,  Washington,  and  British 
Columbia,  and  examined  the  Carbon  Biver  coal  fields. 

Among  the  scientific  papers  written  by  him  in  1880,  a  very 
active  year,  was  one  on  "The  Old  River  Beds  of  California," 
which  further  illustrated  his  views  on  the  critical  events  of  the 
Quaternary  era.  Others  were  on  "The  Genesis  of  Sex,"  "The 
Effect  of  Mixture  of  Races  on  Human  Progress,"  and  on  "The 
Laws  of  Ocular  Motion,"  the  latter  being  afterwards  made  a 
portion  of  his  book  on  "Sight,"  written  in  the  same  year.  He 
also  made  a  trip  to  the  South. 

In  1881  he  made  only  a  short  trip  to  study  the  formation  of 
cinnabar  veins  at  the  Sulphur  Bank,  which  he  saw  in  actual 
progress  and  discussed  in  a  paper  published  in  1882.  In  the 
summer  of  the  last-named  year  he  also  made  another  trip  to  the 
Yosemite,  and  while  there  heard  of  the  discovery  of  the  Carson 
Footprints,  which  he  examined,  together  with  the  Steamboat 
Springs  of  Nevada.  He  determined  the  footprints  as  those  of 
animals  of  late  Tertiary  age. 

Spending  the  summer  vacation  of  1883  near  San  Bernardino, 
he  made  observations  on  the  old  river  beds  of  the  Sierra  Madre, 
showing  there  also  a  post-Tertiary  elevation  of  the  mountains. 
His  paper  on  this  "Rejuvenation  of  the  Sierra"  was  not  pub- 
lished till  1886. 

In  1884,  after  having  in  New  York  superintended  the  publi- 
cation of  his  "Compend  of  Geology,"  he  again  visited  the  South. 
During  this  and  the  following  year  he  wrote  many  short  papers, 
(19)  179 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

but  the  work  of  chief  interest  was  his  excursion  with  Captain 
Button,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  first  to  Mount 
Shasta,  and  then  to  Oregon,  to  the  lava  fields  and  Crater  Lake, 
in  the  old  crater  of"  the  exploded  Mount  Mazama,  whose  lava 
they  found  quite  different  from  that  of  the  lava  fields  proper. 
They  also  examined  Klamath  Lake  and  its  origin  in  a  fault. 
Le  Conte  greatly  admired  the  scenery  and  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  geological  problems  offered  in  that  region.  On  his  return 
he  immediately  began  to  write  out  his  views,  thus  confirmed,  on 
the  "Post-Tertiary  Elevation  of  the  Sierra,"  which  was  read 
before  the  National  Academy  o^f  Sciences  in  1886. 

In  the  summer  of  1887  he  made  a  trip  to  the  lava  fields  of 
Modoc  and  northward,  via  Eeno,  and  Pyramid  and  Winnemucca 
lakes,  which  he  recognized  as  remnants  of  the  former  great  conti- 
nental twin  lake,  Lahontan.  He  also  visited  Surprise  Valley  and 
determined  its  character  as  representing  a  fault  scarp.  Later 
in  the  same  year  he  wrote  a  paper  on  the  "Flora  of  the  Islands 
of  the  California  Coast  in  Eelation  to  Changes  in  Physical 
Geography,"  emphasizing  the  origin  and  effect  of  the  deep  chan- 
nels separating  them  from  the  mainland. 

In  May,  1888,  he  gave  the  inaugural  address  at  the  transfer 
of  the  Lick  Observatory,  then  just  completed,  into  the  custody 
of  the  University  of  California.  During  the  succeeding  sum- 
mer vacation  he,  with  his  family,  once  more  visited  South 
Carolina.  * 

During  the  summer  vacation  of  1889  he  undertook  an  ex- 
tended trip  into  the  Sierra  Nevada,  entering  via  Yosemite  Val- 
ley, Tuolumne  Meadows,  Mono  Pass,  Mono  Lake,  &c.,  ground 
already  familiar  to  him,  but  nevertheless  greatly  enjoyed,  in 
company  with  his  son  Joseph  (who  subsequently  became  a  most 
expert  mountaineer)  and  other  University  men.  At  this  time, 
in  crossing  the  hot  San  Joaquin  Valley,  he  for  the  first  time  felt 
a  waning  of  his  physical  endurance. 

In  1890  Le  Conte  suffered  a  great  shock  and  loss  in  the  death 
of  his  brother  John,  with  whom  he  had  been  more  or  less  asso- 
ciated and  linked  in  close  friendship  throughout  his  life.  He 
wrote  for  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  of  which  both 
brothers  were  members^  the  memoir  of  the  life  of  John  Le  Conte. 

The  years  1890  and  1891  were  a  period  of  great  intellectual 

ISO 


JOSEPH    LE.CONTE. 

and  scientific  activity  for  Le  Conte,  involving  the  publication  of 
numerous  papers,  both  philosophical  and  scientific,  as  well  as 
the  revision  and  republication  of  previous  works.  He  was  elected 
president  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  after  thirty  years'  absence  from  its  meetings.  He  was 
also  made  vice-president  of  the  American  committee  of  the  In- 
ternational Geologic  Congress,  which  met  at  Washington  at  the 
same  time,  and  in  the  unexpected  absence  of  the  president,  New- 
berry, he  presided  at  the  meetings  of  the  Congress,  and  there- 
fore had  to  make  an  address  of  welcome  to  the  visiting  geologists. 
The  subject  of  this  address,  which  he  had  to  prepare  within  two 
days,  was  "The  American  Continent  as  a  Geological  Field,"  and 
in  it  he  called  the  attention  of  the  foreign  members  specially  to 
the  greater  simplicity  of  geologic  phenomena  in  the  United 
States  as  compared  with  Europe,  qualifying  the  American  geo- 
logic field  to  serve  as  a  prototj^pe  rather  than  the  more  complex 
European  conditions,  as  had  heretofore  been  done.  Here  he 
made  numerous  interesting  acquaintances,  which  were  to  serve 
him  greatly  in  a  subsequent  visit  to  Europe. 

Having  subsequently  superintended  at  New  York  the  fourth 
edition  of  his  "Elements  of  Geology,"  he  visited  his  relatives  in 
the  South,  stopping  afterwards  at  Washington,  where  he  lectured 
before  the  Philosophical  Society  on  "The  TIelation  of  Philos- 
ophy to  Psychology  and  to  Physiology."  Subsequently,  in  New 
York,  he  lectured  on  "The  Race  Problem  in  the  South" — a 
thorny  subject  at  the  time — which  he  afterwards  elaborated  more 
fully  in  a  volume  entitled  "Man  and  the  State." 

The  regents  of  the  university  iiaving  given  Le  Conte  a  year's 
leave  of  absence  with  full  salary,  he  determined  now  to  fulfill 
his  wish,  long  entertained,  of  visiting  Europe.  He  sailed  in 
February,  1892,  from  New  York  to  Genoa,  with  his  wife  and 
youngest  daughter,  Caroline.  It  was  a  great  event  to  him  and 
was  thoroughly  enjoyed.  From  Genoa,  Rome  was  visited,  then 
Naples,  whose  bay  he  compares  to  that  of  San  Francisco,  whose 
general  scenery  he  considers  quite  equal,  but  lacking  the  clear 
blue  water  and  the  pebbly  beaches  as  well  as  the  historic  setting. 
After  visiting  the  usual  points  of.  interest,  they  went  north,  via 
Rome,  to  Florence,  Venice,  Milan;  thence,  via  the  St.  Gotthard 
Pass  and  Luzerne,  to  Ziirich,  where  he  visited  the  university; 

181 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    0^    SCIENCES. 

thence  to  Heidelberg  and  down  the  Ehine,  which,  apart  from  its 
historic  castles  and  cities,  he  found  less  striking  than  the  Colum- 
bia, the  Fraser,  or  even  the  Hudson.  After  a  few  days  at 
Cologne  they  went  to  Paris,  where  he  enjoyed  specially  the  many 
distinguished  men  he  met,  mentioning  Gaudry,  Boule,  De  Mar- 
gerie,  •  Daubree,  Barrois,  and  others.  Professor  Javal,  the 
ophthalmologist  of  the  Sorbonne,  told  him  that  where  he  (Le 
Conte)  differed  with  Helmholtz  in  matters  relating  to  sight,  Le 
Conte  was,  in  his  opinion,  altogether  right. 

From  Paris  they  went  to  England,  where  Le  Conte  was 
specially  delighted  to  hear  his  native  tongue  again.  They  were 
mostly  the  guests  of  Mr.  De  Friese,  a  former  student  at  the 
University  of  California.  Among  the  many  interesting  men  he 
met  were  Professor  Prestwich,  whose  guest  he  was  for  some  days. 
Sir  Archibald  Geikie,  Professor  Judd,  and  others;  and  after 
attending  a  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society  he  was  invited  to 
a  dinner,  at  which  he  met,  among  others.  Sir  John  Lubbock,  who 
showed  him  much  attention.  Sir  Andrew  Clark  asked  him  im- 
mediately whether  he  was  the  author  of  the  book  on  "Evolution 
in  Its  Eelation  to  Religious  Thought,"  which  he  had  carefully 
read  and  annotated.  Cambridge  and  Oxford  gave  him  the  most 
enjoyable  experiences.  Prof.  McK.  Hughes  entertained  him  for 
several  days  at  Cambridge,  and  Professor  Romanes,  with  whom 
Le  Conte  had  corresponded,  invited  him  to  his  house  at  Oxford. 
It  appeared,  again,  that  Romanes  had  also  been  especially  im- 
pressed with  the  book  on  "Evolution  and  Religious  Thought." 

After  a  much-enjoyed  tour  througli  Scotland  and  short  stay 
in  Ireland,  where  they  visited  the  Lakes  of  Killarney,  they  went, 
via  Cork  and  Queenstown,  to  New  York ;  thence,  after  presiding 
at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  at  Rochester,  Le  Conte  returned  directly  to 
California. 

In  winter  of  1892-1893  he  visited  southern  California,  lec- 
turing at  several  points. 

On  the  26th  of  February  1893,  being  his  seventieth  birthday, 
the  Academic  Senate  of  the  University  of  California  gave  him  a 
dinner  in  the  Maple  Room  of  the  Palace  Hotel,  San  Francisco. 
In  June  of  the  same  year,  being  quite  unwell,  he  visited  the 
Yosemite  Valley,  and,  thinking  it  was  probably  the  last  time  he 

182 


JOSEPH   LE   CONtE. 

would  see  it,  he  took  leave  of  tlie  familiar  cliffs  and  water-falls." 
He,  however,  saw  it  several  times  afterwards.  In  August  he 
went  to  Madison,  Wisconsin,  to  give  his  address  as  retiring  presi- 
dent of  the  American  Geological  Society.  His  subject  was  the 
important  paper  on  "Mountain  Origin,"  subsequently  published 
in  several  journals. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1894  occurred  the  Midwinter 
Exposition  at  San  Francisco,  where  he  addressed  one  of  the 
congresses  on  "The  Theory  of  Evolution  and  Social  Progress," 
\v]ii(;h  paper  was  subsequently  published  in  The  Monist.  He 
again  spent  the  summer  in  the  Yosemite  Valley,  but  this  time 
at  the  hotel,  and  then,  in  August,  attended  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  at  Brook- 
lyn, New  York.  He  shortly  after  became  a  member  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  in  recognition  of  his 
paper  on  "Posepny's  Genesis  .of  Ore  Deposits." 

In  1895  he  attended  the  meeting  of  the  American  Educational 
Association  at  Denver,  giving  an  address  on  "The  Effect  of  the 
Theory  of  Evolution  upon  Education,"  published  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  that  meeting.  In  this  year  he  also,  after  partici- 
pating in  the  discussions  of  the  "Concept  of  God"  by  the  Philo- 
sophical Union  of  the  University  of  California,  wrote  the  sum- 
mary of  his  address,  which  was  finally,  with  those  of  Howison, 
Royce,  and  Mezes,  published  in  a  book  by  the  Macmillans.  He 
also  wrote,  by  invitation,  a  memoir  of  the  life  of  J.  D.  Dana, 
which  was  read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society  of 
America  and  subsequently  published  as  a  bulletin,  and  also  in 
Dr.  Oilman's  "Life  of  Dana." 

In  January,  1896,  he  gave  up  his  undergraduate  classes,  which 
had  become  excessively  large,  and  thenceforth  gave  mainly  grad- 
uate courses  in  geology  and  comparative  physiology.  This 
change  he  greatly  regretted,  for  he  enjoyed  the  undergraduate 
teaching;  but  the  revision  of  examination  papers  became  too 
irksome. 

In  this  year  the  students  began  to  take  notice  of  his  birthdaj'', 
which  until  his  death  was  manifested  by  decorating  his  room  and 
lecture-table  and  by  the  giving  of  some  valuable  present,  among 
which  was  a  portrait  of  Agassiz.  Even  when,  in  1901,  he  was 
absent  in  Georgia,  he  received  a  congratulatory  telegram  from 

183 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

th^  students;  and  for  a  number  of  years  after  his  death,  formal 
memorial  exercises  were  lield  on  that  day. 

The  year  1896  was  a  very  prolific  one  with  him,  his  first  paper 
being  on  "The  Relations  of  Biology  to  Philosophy."  This  paper 
was  read  at  a  number  of  philosophical  meetings  at  the  East  also, 
and  subsequently  published,  without  his  permission,  and  with 
many  misprints,  in  The  Arena.  Later  he  wrote  an  article  en- 
titled "From  Animal  to  Man,"  published  in  The  Monist.  In 
summer  he  attended  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  at  Buffalo,  and  presided  over 
that  of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  which  was  notable 
because  it  was  in  honor  of  the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  Prof. 
James  Hall's  activity  on  the  geology  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
Le  Conte  delivered  one  of  the  addresses,  which  was  subsequently 
published  in  Science. 

After  supervising  the  new  editions  of  his  "Elements  of  Ge- 
ology" and  his  book  on  "Sight,"  he  early  in  September  sailed 
for  England.  The  special  object  of  this  trip  was  to  attend  the 
Liverpool  meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  to  which  he  had  been  specially  invited.  Here 
he  met  many  old  friends  and  made  a  number  of  new  ones — 
among  others,  Herbert  Spencer,  who  invited  him  to  luncheon; 
also  Mr.  Carnegie,  who  invited  him  to  the  privileges  of  the 
Athenaeum,  in  London. 

Le  Conte's  stay  in  England  was  brief,  as  he  was  to  be  present 
at  the  sesquicentennial  celebration  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
on  changing  its  title  to  that  of  Princeton  University.  Here  the 
title  of  LL.  D.  was  again  conferred  upon  him,  and  esteemed  by 
him  a  distinguished  honor. 

After  the  celebration  he  visited  Harvard  University  as  the 
guest  of  his  former  pupil,  Josiah  Eoyce,  and  spent  a  fortnight 
among  many  old  friends,  including  Mrs.  Agassiz,  Alexander 
Agassiz,  Mrs.  Asa  Gray,  and  James  Peirce ;  dining  also  with  a 
"Berkeley  colony"  of  twenty  or  more  former  students. 

After  attending  the  meeting  of  the  National  Academy  at  New 
York,  in  November,  he  presided  at  the  meeting  of  the  Geological 
Society  in  December.  At  the  latter  meeting  he  gave  an  address 
on  "Criist  Movements  and  Their  Causes,"  which  was  printed 


184 


JOSEPH   LE   CONTfi. 

as  a  bulletin  of  the  society  and  also  in  the  Report  of  the  Regents 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  1896. 

Immediately  after  this  meeting  he  joined  his  wife  and  daugh- 
ter in  the  South,  and  celebrated  his  golden  wedding  at  the  house 
of  his  elder  daughter,  at  Scottsboro,  only  two  miles  from  Mid- 
way, where  the  marriage  originally  took  place.  All  the  children 
and  grandchildren,  with  many  other  friends,  attended  the  happy 
occasion,  which  was  still  further  enlivened  by  numerous  tele- 
grams, presents,  and  congratulations  from  the  regents  and 
faculty  of  the  University  of  California,  and  other  distant  friends. 
Subsequently,  on  his  return  to  California,  a  public  reception 
was  given  him  and  Mrs.  Le  Conte  by  the  alumni  of  the  uni- 
versity, with  the  presentation  of  'a  golden  loving-cup,  at  the 
Hopkins  Art  Institute;  followed  later  by  a  dinner  given  by  the 
faculty. 

The  summer  vacation  of  1897  he  again  passed  in  the  Yosemite 
Valley,  his  son  and  daughter  camping.  He  also  made  an  ex- 
cursion to  Clouds  Rest  and  the  Little  Yosemite,  and  he  once 
more  thought  it  would  probably  be  the  last  time  that  he  should 
see  these  wonders. 

In  1898  he  published  a  new  and  revised  edition  of  the  "Com- 
pend  of  Geology"  and  on  Charter  Day  delivered  an  address  on 
"The  True  Idea  of  a  University,"  subsequently  printed  in  the 
University  Chronicle.  He  also  contributed  to  the  Philosophical 
Union's  discussions  on  "The  Will  to  Believe,"  and  a  paper  on 
"The  Religious  Significance  of  Science." 

During  1899  he  wrote  and  published  in  the  Journal  of  Ge- 
ology what  he  himself  regards  as  one  of  his  most  important 
geological  papers,  on  "The  Ozarkian  and  Its  Significance  in 
Theoretical  Geology,"  which  discusses  the  important  unconform- 
ities and  erosions  due  to  extended  oscillations  of  the  continent 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Quaternary  era. 

In  January  and  February,  1900,  he  published,  in  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  a  popular  article  entitled  "A  Century  of  Ge- 
ology," wherein  he  traces  the  evolution  of  geologic  thought  dur- 
ing the  nineteenth  century;  illustrating  strikingly  its  develop- 
ment from  mere  infancy  to  the  commanding  position  it  now 
occupies  among  the  natural  sciences,  notably  its  influence  upon 
general  scientific  as  well  as  philosophical  and  religious  thought; 

385 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

overcoming  one  after  anotlier  the  various  plirases  of  opposition 
by  the  invincible  logic  of  its  facts  and  logical  inferences  there- 
from, and  later  substituting  for  the  cataclysmic  theories  enter- 
tained at  first,  the  conception  by  Lyell  of  slow  and  measured 
agencies,  as  observed  today;  which  was  in  its  turn  modified  by 
the  recognition  of  "critical  periods"  occurring  from  time  to  time, 
when  changes  were  rapid  and  intense. 

Feeling  in  good  health  and  spirits,  despite  his  77  years,  and 
yearning  once  more  for  the  High  Sierra,  he  joined  a  camping 
tour  undertaken  by  his  son  Joseph  into  the  Kings  Kiver  Canon. 
He  was  in  camp  for  six  weeks,  part  of  the  time  at  an  altitude  of 
11,000  feet  and  once  at  12,000,  he  being  in  perfect  health  all  the 
time  and  greatly  enjoying  himself.  An  account  of  this  trip  was 
published  by  him  in  the  October  number  of  Sunset,  1900. 

Having  again  been  given  leave  of  absence  for  one  year  by  the 
regents,  in  order  that  he  might  attend  the  congresses  of  the 
natural  sciences  which  were  to  meet  at  Paris  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  he  made  preparations  to  go,  but  gave  it  up  on  account 
of  the  ill  health  of  his  daughter  Caroline.  In  September,  nev- 
ertheless, he  went  to  Nev7  York  with  his  wife  to  cross  the  At- 
lantic, but  was  himself  taken  ill  with  the  grippe  and  had  to 
relinquish  the  voyage.  He  then  went  South,  to  his  elder  daugh- 
ter's home,  soon  recovered,  and  spent  the  winter  among  his 
children  and  grandchildren.  He  still  hoped  to  go  to  Europe  in 
the  spring,  but  his  wife  yearned  for  home,  and  they  returned  to 
Berkeley  in  March.  As  his  son  was  to  marry  in  June,  he  finally 
relinquished  the  European  trip. 

itfter  the  wedding,  which  was  also  attended  by  his  ^eldest 
daughter,  Mrs.  Davis,  long  a  resident  of  South  Carolina,  he  de- 
termined to  revisit  the  Yosemite  Valley  in  company  with  Mrs. 
Davis,  who  had  never  seen  it.  Mrs.  Le  Conte  was  anxious  about 
the  effect  of  the  trip  upon  his  reduced  strength,  but  her  ob- 
jections were  overcome  by  his  enthusiasm  and  ardent  wishes, 
and  so  he  left  home  in  June,  1901,  for  his  eleventh  visit  to  the 
wonderful  valley,  via  Wawona  and  the  Mariposa  Grove.  On 
July  3  he  arrived  at  Camp  Curry,  the  rendezvous  of  the  Sierra 
Club,  somewhat  fatigued,  but  joyous  and  enthusiastic  as  ever. 

Professor  Frank  Soule,  of  the  University  of  California,  one  of 
his  companions  on  this  trip,  as  he  had  been  thirty-one  years  be- 

186 


JOSEPH   LE   CONTE, 

fore,  tliiis  describes  tlie  events  of  these  last  days  of  Le  Conte's 
life: 

"He  spent  the  next  two  days  driving  around  the  valley  with 
his  daughter  and  her  friends,  in  walking  to  objects  near  at  hand, 
or,  during  intervals  of  rest,  in  chatting  with  his  numerous 
friends  and  the  strangers  who  insisted  on  meeting  him.  He  was 
geniality  and  hospitality  personified,  a  Southern  gentleman  of 
tlie  old  school,  and  undoubtedly  his  physical  strength  was  thus 
severely  overtaxed  during  these  two  days.  The  history  of  his 
earlier  trips,  his  hypothesis  of  the  formation  of  the  valley,  and 
geological  questions  innumerable,  were  all  gone  over  patiently  for 
the  edification  of  his  ever-gathering  listeners.  But  nature  gave 
out  at  last.  On  the  evening  of  July  5  the  sad  words  were  whis- 
pered around  camp  that  ^dear  Dr.  Joe  is  very  ill.'  He  was  in 
great  physical  pain,  caused  by  angina  pectoris,  but  his  daughter 
and  their  intimate  friends  did  everything  possible  throughout 
the  night  to  alleviate  his  sufferings.  In  the  morning  he  seemed 
to  be  resting  comfortably,  so  much  so  that  his  physician  left  his 
bedside  to  procure  additional  medicine  from  the  hotel.  At  10 
a.  m.  Dr.  Le  Conte  turned  on  his  left  side.  His  watchful  daugh- 
ter at  once  noticed  a  great  change  coming  oyer  his  face,  and  said, 
*Do  not  lie  on  your  left  side,  father;  you  know  it  is  not  good  for 
you.'  He  smiled  and  uttered  his  last  words  in  life,  ^It  does  not 
matter,  daughter.'    In  five  minutes  he  was  dead. 

"Only  24  hours  previously  he  had  visited  with  his  party  the 
picturesque  Vernal  Falls,  and  while  there  had  good-humoredly 
consented  to  be  photographed,  affording  the  last  picture  of  him 
ever  taken." 

Scores  of  friends  quickly  gathered,  and  university  students 
and  graduates  prepared  his  casket,  bound  it  upon  the  stage-coach, 
and  covered  it  with  laurels  and  pines.  Thus  Joseph  Le  Conte 
set  out  on  his  last  return  from  the  valley,  escorted  by  his  daugh- 
ter and  one  friend. 

The  funeral,  which  took  place  on  July  13,  was  a  remarkable 
manifestation  of  the  respect  and  affection  in  which  he  was  held, 
not  only  by  all  connected  with  the  University  of  California,  but 
also  by  the  people  of  the  surrounding  cities  and  of  the  State  at 
large.  Many  came  from  long  distances  to  pay  this  last  tribute 
of  respect  to  Joseph    Le  Conte;    the    regents,    faculties,  and 

187 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

students  of  the  iiniversit}'',  where  all  exercises  had  been  sus- 
pended for  the  day,  and  a  long  line  of  carriages  formed  an  im- 
posing procession,  accompanying  the  body  to  Mountain  View 
Cemetery,  near  Oakland,  where  it  was  interred  alongside  of  his 
brother  John.  A  few  months  later  the  grave  was  marked  with 
a  large  granite  boulder  procured  by  the  Sierra  Club  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  camp  where  he  died,  in  the  Yosemite  Valley. 

On  August  21  following,  at  the  opening  of  the  academic  year, 
memorial  exercises  were  held  in  the  presence  of  a  large  audi- 
ence in  the  hall  of  the  Harmon  Gymnasium,  addresses  being  de- 
livered by  members  of  the  faculty,  alumni,  and  students.  Memo- 
rial ceremonies  still  continue  to  be  observed  annually,  at  the 
University,  on  February  26,  Joseph  Le  Conte's  birthday,  at  the 
foot  of  a  venerable  oak  dedicated  to  the  two  brothers  by  the 
students. 

Joseph  Le  Conte  is  survived  by  his  wife,  three  daughters,  and 
one  son. 

Digest  of  Joseph  Le  Contf/s  Major  Writings. 

1.  scientific  publications. 

A.  Geological. 

Le  Conte's  first  geological  paper  after  his  arrival  in  Cali- 
fornia was  evidently  suggested  by  his  observations  in  the  Sierra 
Nevada  and  the  Coast  Eange,  in  1870  and  the  next  succeeding 
years.  His  "Theory  of  the  Formation  of  the  Great  Features  of 
the  Earth's  Surface,"  published  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  in  November,  1872,  outlines  essentially  the  views  which 
he  presented  more  elaborately  in  later  papers  on  related  subjects, 
notably  in  his  "Reply  to  the  Criticisms  of  T.  S.  Hunt"  on  the 
above  paper  (1873),  and  later  in  that  on  "Evidences  of  Hori- 
zontal Crushing  in  the  Formation  of  the  Coast  Range  of  Cali- 
fornia" (1876).  In  the  first  of  the  above  papers  he  formulates 
into  a  definite  theory  the  ideas  theretofore  advanced  by  Her- 
shell,  Scrope,  Lyell,  Hunt,  and  Hall,  viz.,  the  solidity  of  the 
earth's  interior  and  the  aqueo-igneous  fusion  of  the  deeply 
buried  sediments  by  the  rise  of  the  geo-isotherms.  At  this  point 
Le  Conte  adds  the  important  suggestion  that  such  fusion  cre- 
ated lines  or  belts  of  weakness,  which,  with  the  effect  of  secular 

188 


JOSEPH   LE   CONTE; 

contraction  of  the  earth,  caused  the  formation  of  mountain 
chains  within  ttie  zones  of  greatest  thickness,  and  their  complex 
folding  by  lateral  pressure  and  upswelling.  Hunt's  reclamations 
of  priority  are  discussed  in  the  second  paper,  together  with  clear 
formulations  of  the  essentials  of  his  views,  and  their  correlation 
with  the  occurrence  of  fissure  eruptions  and  volcanoes  in  con- 
nection with  such  chains.  He  also  calls  attention  to  the  impos- 
sibility of  supposing  the  Appalachian  plateau  to  have  been 
formed  as  a  convexity,  that  form  being  necessarily  a  subsequent 
result  of  an  extended  ("^epelrogenic")  upheaval.  He  sums  up 
by  the  formulation  of  his  theory  of  mountain  formation  as 
follows:  Accumulation  of  lines  of  thick  sediments  where  sub- 
sidence occurs;  rise  of  geo-isotherms,  causing  aqueo-igneous 
softening,  which  determines  lines  of  weakness  and  yielding;  then 
crushing  horizontally  and  swelling  up  vertically  forms  the  moun- 
tain chain.  But  when  once  the  yielding  begins,  mechanical 
energy  is  changed  into  heat,  which  may  thus  be  increased  to  any 
extent  and  produce  tnie  igneous  fusion.  In  the  last-mentioned 
effect  he,  with  J.  D.  Dana,  accepts  the  views  of  Robert  Mallet. 
In  subsequent  papers  as  well  as  in  his  book  on  the  "Elements  of 
Geology,"  he  of  course  completes  this  theory  by  reference  to  the 
resultant  fissure  eruptions,  followed  by  the  establishment  of 
volcanoes  as  the  remnant  of  the  energy  of  fissure  eruptions,  and 
the  final  erosion  into  the  present  forms  of  mountain  chains ;  but 
he  admits  his  inability  to  account  for  the  local  oscillations  of 
level,  which  are  so  obvious  in  the  past  and  are  still  in  progress. 
In  his  paper  on  the  "Formation  of  the  Coast  Eange  of  Califor- 
nia" (1876)  he  illustrates, and  fortifies  by  many  observations  and 
examples,  his  previous  conclusions.  He  discusses  specially  his  ob- 
servations of  the  numerous  rounded  and  elongated,  flattened  con- 
cretions of  the  cleavager  surfaces  of  shales,  evidently  originally 
clay  pellets,  which  have  experienced  the  effects  of  lateral  pres- 
sure and  corresponding  vertical  upswelling.  He  shows  that 
every  21/2  to  3  feet  of  original  horizontal  strata  were  here  com- 
pressed into  one  foot,  with  corresponding  vertical  upswelling. 
Slaty  cleavage  was  here  not  produced  at  right  angles  to  the  pres- 
sure, owing  to  the  coarseness  of  materials;  but  in  the  foothill 
slates  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  the  slaty  cleavage  is  nearly  through- 
out parallel  to  the  stratification. 

189 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF   SCIENCES. 

He  also  refers  to  the  criticism  made  by  Dana,  that  he  (Le 
Conte)  underestimates  the  amount  of  elevation  caused  by  plica- 
tions, and  claims  that  on  the  supposition  of  a  solid  earth,  the 
elevation  by  compression  will  be  the  same  with  as  without  fold- 
ing, and  that  if  fissure  eruptions  occur,  the  same  will  be  true. 

Le  Conte's  paper  "On  the  Great  Lava-Flood  of  the  N"orthwest, 
and  the  Structure  and  Age  of  the  Cascade  Mountains,"  written 
in  1874,  after  his  second  exploration  of  that  region,  adds  im- 
portant illustration  and  corroboration  to  some  of  the  points  pre- 
viously made  by  hkii.  In  his  two  explorations  he  conclusively 
established  the  enormous  extent  and  thickness  of  the  Northwest- 
ern eruptive  sheet,  and  the  beginning  of  its  extrusion  toward 
or  at  the  end  of  the  Miocene.  He  concludes  that  while  a  low 
range  may  have  been  formed  synchronously  with  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  in  Triasso- Jurassic  times,  it  was  subsequently  over- 
flowed and  submerged  by  the  great  lava-flow,  causing  the  striking 
contrast  between  the  jagged  summit-lines  of  the  Sierra  and  the 
almost  level,  plateau-like  crest  of  the  Cascades,  varied  only  by 
the  volcanic  cones  superimposed  upon  it.  As  to  the  mode  of 
formation  of  the  great  eruptive  sheet,  he  accentuates  the  fact 
that  inasmuch  as  mountain  ranges  are  admittedly  formed  as  the 
result  of  lateral  crushing  and  vertical  upswelling,  it  is  natural 
that  when  the  stress  occurs  after  a  protracted  solidification  of  the 
crust,  fissures  must  be  formed  and  the  sub-mountain  liquid  or 
viscous  matter,  probably  formed  by  local  crushing,  must  be 
squeezed  out.  He  also  calls  attention  to  the  difference  in  the 
physical  condition  of  the  great  eruptive  sheet  and  the  vesicular 
lavas  erupted  by  the  succeeding  volcanoes,  in  which  steam  and 
other  gases  act  as  a  vis  a  tergo.  He  agrees  with  Dana  as  to  the 
inverse  ratio  between  folded  mountain  chains  and  fissure  erup- 
tions. 

These  papers  of  Le  Conte  and  those  published  by  Dana  in 
volumes  4  and  5  of  the  Journal  of  Science  form  a  remarkable 
body  of  important  discussions  of  mountain-making.  While  dif- 
fering in  some  details  and  in  mode  of  statement,  the  essential 
points  of  the  two  sets  of  papers  are  in  agreement,  and  both  turn 
to  the  contraction  of  the  globe  as  the  necessary  moving  force  for 
the  lateral  crushing  which  is  in  evidence  everywhere. 


190 


JOSEPH    LE   CONTE. 

In  a  later  paper  (1878)  Le  Conte  replies  elaborately  to  criti- 
cisms made  by  Button,  combating  tbe  contraction  of  the  earth 
by  cooling  as  an  agency  in  mountain-making.  Later  papers  on 
the  same  subject  appeared  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine  (1888), 
in  the  American  Geologist  (1889),  and  in  the  presidential  ad- 
dress delivered  by  him  before  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  1893.  The  views  there  given  are  those 
embodied  in  the  last  edition  of  his  "Elements  of  Geology,"  re- 
vised by  himself  in  1902,  and  do  not  materially  differ  from  those 
quoted  above. 

Le  Conte  considers  as  one  of  his  most  important  geological 
papers  that  on  "Critical  Periods  in  the  History  of  the  Earth  and 
their  Eelation  to  Evolution;  and  on  the  Quaternary  as  Such  a 
Period,"  published  in  1877.  It  is  the  most  comprehensive  and 
probably  the  most  widely  interesting  of  his  single  papers,  com- 
prehending as  it  does  the  geological,  geo-physical,  paleonto- 
logical,  and  evolutionary  points  of  view,  including  the  preemi- 
nent significence  of  the  advent  of  man  upon  earth.  It  is  at  this 
time  the  more  interesting  as,  by  an  unconscious  reaction  toward 
Agassiz'  contentions,  he  is  lead  to  anticipate  the  modern  theory 
of  "Mutation"  in  connection  with  evolution,  fesignating  the 
process  as  "the  fact  of  paroxysmal  movement  of  organic  evolu- 
tion." An  organism,  he  says,  may  be  regarded  as  being  under 
the  influence  of  two  opposing  forces,  the  one — heredity,  rigidity 
of  type — conservative;  the  other,  the  pressure  of  changing  en- 
vironment and  conditions,  aided  possibly  by  an  inherent  tendency 
toward  change.  The  laiter  may  for  some  time  accumulate  but 
make  little  impression,  l)ut  finally,  the  resistance  giving  way,  the 
organic  form  breaks  up  into  a  number  of  fantastic  sports,  which 
are  at  once  seized  upon  by  natural  selection.  If  for  the  word 
"sports"  we  substitute  "mutations,"  we  have  the  essentials  of 
De  Vries'  views  and  observations,  in  which  natural  selection  also 
soon  eliminates  a  number  of  non-viable  mutations. 

The  critical  periods  he  discusses  are  those  characterized  by 
unconformities  in  the  geological  series,  which  he  considers  as 
marking  changes  in  the  rate  of  evolution,  "periods  when  the 
forces  of  change  are  active,  instead  of  potential"  as  in  times 
when  conformable  rocks  are  being  made.     The  critical  periods 


191 


NATIONAL  -ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

are  periods  of  lost  records,  because  they  were  continental;  and 
the  farther  back  we  go  in  geological  and  human  history,  the 
longer  are  the  gaps  and  the  more  irrecoverable  the  records.  The 
first  and  the  greatest  observable  break  is  that  between  the 
Archean  and  the  Paleozoic.  The  former  ends  with  merely 
protozoan  life,  hardly  yet  differentiated  into  fauna  and  flora. 
The  primordial  record  opens  with  a  varied  and  already  highly 
organized  fauna,  including  an  enormous  evolutionary  interval. 
The  next  general  unconformity  occurs  between  the  Paleozoic 
and  Mesozoic,  "the  most  sweeping  change  in  the  forms  of  or- 
ganisms that  has  ever  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  earth,  even 
though  partly  bridged  by  the  Permian." 

Far  less  in  time  and  in  sweeping  character  is  the  lost  interval 
between  the  Mesozoic  and  the  Cenozoic,  the  Cretaceous  and  the 
Tertiary.  Here  conformity  is  not  uncommon,  but  the  break 
in  the  continuity  of  the  fauna  is  very  great  all  over  the  world; 
the  relatively  short  interval  and  the  great  change  from  the  crest 
of  saurian  development  ending  the  Cretaceous,  and  the  great 
mammalian  evolution  in  the  Tertiary,  is  so  great  that  it  can 
only  be  explained  by  migration  from  where  marsupial  forms 
had  existed  eve^  from  Jurassic  times.  The  disappearance  of  the 
Cretaceous  ocean  and  its  replacement  by  great  lakes  in  the  Basin 
region  was  doubtless  a  powerful  agency  in  bringing  about  these 
changes  in  America. 

The  early  Quaternary  was  also  to  a  marked  degree  a  conti- 
nental period,  one  of  great  and  widespread  oscillations,  upheaval, 
downsinking  and  reelevation,  with  unconformities  on  a  grand 
scale.  He  discusses  this  interval  specially  in  a  paper  published 
in- 1899,  "On  the  Ozarkian  and  its  Significance  in  Theoretical 
Geolog}^"  emphasizing  particularly  the  important  unconformi- 
ties and  protracted  and  incisive  erosional  activity  marking  the  in- 
terval of  time  between  the  latest  Tertiary  and  the  earliest  Quater- 
nary; when  during  extended  continental  elevations  there  were 
formed  ^the  deep  and  abrupt  canons  of  the  Ozark  range,  the 
sculpturing  of  the  coastal  plain  of  the  Gulf  States,  prior  as  well 
as  subsequent  to  the  Lafayette  epoch;  the  formation  of  the  now 
submerged  river  channels  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  and,  greatest  of 
all,  the  excavation  of  the  present  river  channels  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  and  of  the  inner  caiion  of  the  Colorado.    Le  Conte  esti- 

192 


JOSEPH    LE    COi^TE. 

mates  that  this  erosional  interval  must  have  been  quite  as  long, 
and  probably  longer,  than  the  Glacial  Epoch  itself.  There  were 
thus  great  changes  in  physical  geography,  permitting  inter- 
continental migration  of  mammals  and  forcing  the  retreat  of 
organic  forms  adapted  to  temperate  and  warm  climates  south- 
ward, both  on  land  and  sea;  with  a  subsequent  return  of  arctic 
forms  northward  and  upon  mountains,  where  they  were  left 
stranded  in  isolation.  The  disappearance  of  the  great  Pliocene 
mediterranean  lake  separating  eastern  from  western  America 
likewise  brought  about  or  permitted  important  changes.  Yet 
great  as  these  changes  were,  they  are  incomparably  less  than 
those  of  previous  critical  periods,  in  which  not  species  but  genera, 
families,  and  even  orders  appeared  and  disappeared.  The  con- 
clusion is  that  the  previous  critical  periods  or  lost  intervals  were 
far  longer  than  the  whole  Quaternary,  or  that  the  rate  of  evolu- 
tion was  far  more  rapid  in  those  earlier  times. 

In  view  of  all  the  facts,  Le  Conte  claims  that  the  Quaternary, 
as  a  critical  period,  should  be  considered  as  separating  the 
Cenozoic  from  the  Present,  or  Psychozoic,  or  Age  of  Man.  "Not 
that  man  was  not  in  existence  in  the  early  Quaternary,  just  as 
fishes  existed  before  the  Age  of  Fishes.  It  is  the  culmination 
of  a  fauna  or  flora,  not  their  first  beginnings,  that  should  be 
considered  as  characterizing  an  'age.'  " 

Next  in  im])ortance  to  the  above  papers  of  wide  scope  and  in- 
terest stands  that  on  "The  Old  Kiver  Beds  of  California,"  which 
was  written  by  him  as  the  result  of  an  exploration  of  the  Yuba 
River  and  its  hydraulic  mines  (1880).  It  suggested  to  him  the 
important  idea  of  a  rejuvenation  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  at  the 
end  of  the  Tertiary — a  topic  which  is  more  fully  elaborated  in 
his  "Elements  of  Geology,"  pages  591  to  593. 

His  paper  "On  Some  of  the  Ancient  Glaciers  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada"  was  based  upon  his  observations,  first  made  in  1874, 
near  Lake  Tahoe,  which  he  subsequently  supplemented  elsewhere 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada;  convincing  himself,  among  other  things, 
of  the  former  occupancy  of  the  Yosemite  Valley  by  a  glacier, 
which  Whitney  had  at  first  believed,  but  afterwards  rejected. 
Le  Conte  bases  his  conclusions  upon  the  general  forms  of  the 
rocky  sides  of  the  valley  and  the  characteristic  lake-meadows 
marking  the  retreat  of  the  glacier,  even  though  moraines  and 

193 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

scorings  are  not  much  in  evidence.  The  rapid  weathering  of 
the  Yosemite  granites  would  inevitably  obliterate  the  latter  in  a 
relative!)^  short  time.  Investigations  made  since  in  other  parts 
of  the  Sierra  have  clearly  proven  the  former  presence  of  numer- 
ous glaciers  of  vast  extent  in  the  principal  valleys  of  the  Sierra, 
and  Le  Conte,  as  well  as  the  writer,  thinks  that  there  is  good 
evidence  that  even  the  Coast  Eange  was  at  one  time  glaciated. 

In  1881  he,  in  company  with  Professor  Eising,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California,  made  a  special  examination  of  the  "Sul- 
phur Banks"  quicksilver  mines,  where  he  saw  cinnabar  vein- 
formation  in  actual  progress.  These  observations  were  discussed 
in  a  paper  published  in  1882  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence. In  that  year  he  also  made  another  trip  to  the  Yosemite 
Valley,  and  while  there  heard  of  the  discovery  of  the  "Carson 
Footprints,"  which  he  examined,  together  with  the  Steamboat 
Springs  of  N'evada.  He  determined  the  footprints  to  be  those 
of  animals  of  late  Tertiary  age.  The  results  of  these  inves- 
tigations were  published  in  1883. 

B.  Biological  Writings. 

Le  Conte's  book  on  "Sight,"  first  published  in  1881  and  again 
in  1897,  as  volume  31  of  the  International  Scientific  Series,  by 
the  Appletons,  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration  of  the 
accuracy  of  his  habit  of  observation,  and  the  best  refutation  of 
the  criticism  made  of  his  geological  work  by  sticklers  for  spe- 
cialization, viz.,  that  he  failed  to  show  himself  a  good  field  geol- 
ogist. Undoubtedly  his  bent  of  mind  lay  rather  in  the  direction 
of  generalizations  from  facts,  whether  observed  by  himself  or 
others;  but  when  he  needed  additional  facts  for  his  purposes,  no 
one  was  more  apt  and  ingenious  in  devising  and  carrying  out  the 
needful  experiments  and  observations.  The  power  and  faculty 
of  generalization  is  infinitely  more  rare  and  fruitful  than  that 
of  narrow  specialization,  but  it  nowise  impairs,  necessarily,  that 
of  accurate  observation.  It  is  when  superficial  knowledge  at- 
tempts generalization  that  discredit  does  and  should  attach  to  it. 

As  regards  vision,  he  was  specially  qualified  by  the  possession 
of  excellent,  strong,  and  normal  eyes,  which  lasted  unimpaired 
to  the  last;  enabling  him,  with  the  aid  of  persistent  practice,  to 
execute  with  little  difficulty  experiments  that  had  failed  with 

194 


JOSEPH    LB    CONTE. 

others,  and  the  failure  of  which  had  been  made  the  basis  of  in- 
correct interpretations  of  the  phenomena  of  binocular  vision 
especially.  Thus,  at  his  first  view  of  the  stereoscope  devised  by 
Wheatstone  he  at  (mce  perceived  the  incorrectness  of  Wheat- 
stone's  subjective  interpretation  of  the  stereoscopic  effect,  being 
enabled  to  see  the  real  and  the  phantom  images  simultaneously 
by  simple  change  in  the  adjustment  of  the  eyes.  His  book  con- 
tains a  wealth  of  experiments  easily  executed  by  persons  with 
normal  eyes,  and  most  convincing  in  their  results,  yet  difficult  or 
impossible  to  some  persons,  especially  to  those  not  accustomed 
to  close  objective  perception  and  analysis  thereof. 

Accepting  the  correctness  of  the  experimental  results  as  given 
by  Le  Conte — and,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  they  have  not 
been  successfully  controverted  in  any  material  points — the  clear- 
ness, simplicity,  and  cogency  with  which  he  presents  even  the 
most  intricate  phenomena  and  principles  of  vision  are  remarkable. 
ITnlike  many  other  treatises  on  subjects  admitting  of  a  strictly 
mathematical  presentation,  such  as  is  given  in  most  treatises  on 
optics,  Le  Conte  abstains  as  much  as  possible  from  the  intro- 
(lucticm  of  matliematical  ronmihi',  which  are  after  all  only  the 
graj)hic  expression  of  truths  or  ])rinciples  that  can  be  formulated 
in  words ;  even  though  the  exact  quantitative  relations  require  the 
mathematical  form  for  their  expression.  Le  Conte  himself  con- 
siders his  work  on  vision  as  among  the  best  and  most  important 
hejias  done. 

Any  detailed  discussion  of  the  points  wherein  Le  Conte  has 
modified  or  changed  or  added  to  the  definitions  and  explanations 
of  previous  writei's  would  be  out  of  place  here,  but  among  the 
most  prominent  may  be  mentioned  his  explanation  of  stereo- 
scopic vision  in  connection  with  the  true  theory  of  binocular 
perspective;  of  the  true  nature  of  the  horopter;  the  demonstra- 
tion of  certain  fundamental  physical  phenomena  in  binocular 
vision,  and  the  devising  of  a  new  mode  of  diagranmiatic  repre- 
sentation based  thereupon.  Also  the  explanation,  for  the  first 
time,  of  certain  peculiarities  of  phantom  planes. 

In  the  book  "Outlines  of  the  Co^nparative  Physiology  and 

Morphology  of  Animals,"  Le  Conte's  point  of  view  of  broad 

culture   as  the  proper  precursor  to   specialization   and  minute 

analysis  is  prominently  exemplified.    The  book,  which  embodies 

(20)  195 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

much  of  his  other  biological  work,  represents  what  might  be 
called  his  as  well  as  his  students'  favorite  course,  the  one  which 
more  than  any  other  attracted  his  audience  and  which,  so  far 
from  discouraging  concurrent  or  subsequent  detailed  work  on 
their  part,  served  conspicuously  to  attract  students  to  special 
higher  courses  by  the  lively  interest  created  in  their  minds — 
interest  such  as  setting  them  down  at  once  to  a  dissecting-table 
or  museum  case  would  never  have  brought  about  or  sustained. 
The  bearing  of  their  subjects  of  study  upon  familiar  living, 
moving  objects  and  their  correlations  is  ever  that  which  inter- 
ests pupils  most,  from  childhood  to  maturity,  and  such  interest 
is  the  best  basis  for  earnest  effort  and  success.  The  book  serves 
admirably  to  avoid  "the  serious  danger  that  ...  in  mi- 
croscopic clearness  but  narrowness  of  our  knowledge  we  lose  ihat 
general  view  of  the  whole,  which  alone  gives  significance  to  any 
knowledge." 

The  method  of  treatment  also  is  peculiarly  well  adapted  to  the 
sustaining  of  interest  throughout.  Instead  of  the  iron-clad 
academic  consistency  which  has  led  some  of  our  text-book  writers 
in  botany,  for  instance,  to  begin  with  the  nearly  invisible  micro- 
scopic domain  of  unicellular  organisms,  because  of  the  simplicity 
of  structure,  Le  Conte  throughout  begins  with  the  best-known 
though  most  complex  form — man — and  then  uses  the  simplifi- 
cations found  in  descending  to  the  lower  organisms  to  elucidate 
the  complex  structures  and  functions  in  the  higher  animals,  for 
each  organ  or  functional  complex.  This  method  may  not  con- 
form to  the  latest  doctrines  in  the  matter  of  instruction,  but  it 
was  notably  and  conspicuously  successful  in  accomplishing  the 
essential  prime  objects  of  all  instruction.  The  interest  was  in- 
creased by  the  final  summary  of  evolutional  development  in  the 
subject  of  each  chapter  or  functional  subdivision.  Just  as  the 
evolutional  idea  when  broached  by  Darwin  brought  about  a  quick 
revival  of  interest  where  previously  there  had  been  fatigue  from 
the  multitude  of  dead,  dissociated  facts  accumulated  by  inves- 
tigators in  the  biological  sciences,  so  the  same  idea  is  most  fruit- 
ful in  creating  and  fostering  the  interest  of  pupils  under  in- 
struction in  universities  or  even  high  schools. 

As  is  natural,  the  subjects  of  sight  and  of  the  glycogenic  func- 
tions of  the  liver,  on  which  Le  Conte  had  made  special  investi- 

196 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

gations,  are  given  great  prominence,  and  the  presentation  of  the 
subject  first  named  is  perhaps  the  most  lucid  and  cogent  that 
can  be  given  within  the  space  allowed  by  the  plan  of  the  book. 
The  discussion  of  the  kidneys  and  liver  and  their  functions,  in 
the  chapter  on  "Katabolism,"  are  among  the  most  interesting  in 
their  suggestiveness.  There  is  manifest  throughout  an  evident 
relish  of  the  subject,  traceable  to  his  "first  love"  in  studying 
under  Agassiz. 

C.  Philosophical  Writings. 

As  may  be  seen  from  the  list  of  his  writings  given  at  the  end 
of  this  memoir,  Le  (■onte  dwelt  and  wrote  frequently,  almost 
throughout  his  life,  upon  philosophical  subjects.  These  writings 
he  fortunately  gathered  into  ])ernianent  forms  in  later  years,  so 
that  his  views  may  be  considered  as  quite  fully  represented  in 
them.  It  would  be  of  interest  to  follow  through  those  papers 
the  gradual  development  and  change  of  his  ideas  in  this  direc- 
tion; but  to  do  so  lies  beyond  the  scope  of  this  memoir.  In  his 
two  books,  "Religion  and  Science,"  1873  (reprinted  in  1902), 
and  "Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought,"  1888 
(second  edition,  revised,  1892),  Le  Conte  summarizes  his  dis- 
cussions and  views  on  these  subjects,  in  which  he  felt  the  deepest 
interest.  Hence  an  analysis  of  these  books  perhaps  gives  a  better 
insight  into  his  mental  attitude  than  any  other,  part  of  his  works. 

In  these  discussions  he  has,  probably  more  than  any  other  man, 
contributed  toward  the  formation  of  a  sane  public  sentiment,  and 
to  the  removal  of  unfounded  prejudices  against  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  from  the  minds  of  well-meaning  persons.  His  funda- 
mental thesis  and  deep  conviction  was  that,  under  a  correct  inter- 
pretation of  both,  there  cannot  be  any  contradiction  between  the 
Book  of  Nature  and  the  Book  of  Revelation.  His  consistent 
vindication  of  the  claims  of  our  spiritual  nature  as  against  the 
materialistic  doctrines  secured  for  him,  himself  a  scientist  of 
distinction,  a  respectful  hearing  where  mere  scholastic  discussion 
or  dogmatic  assertion,  indulged  in  about  equally  on  both  sides, 
produced  little  or  no  impression,  thus  leaving  the  conflicting 
opinions  unchanged. 

Of  the  two  books  mentioned,  the  last-named,  in  which  the 
fruitful  idea  of  evolution  is  the  keynote,  is  doubtless  the  one 

197 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

which,  coming  Just  at  the  right  time,  had  the  widest  influence, 
evolution  being  then  the  topic  foremost  in  the  public  mind,  and 
the  contested  sign  of  the  times.  The  former  book,  however,  had 
rendered  important  service  in  preparing  the  ground  for  the  sub- 
sequent discussion,  the  importance  of  which  is  evidenced  by  the 
publication  of  many  magazine  articles  and  several  books  by  dis- 
tinguished scholars,  both  in  America  and  abroad. 

The  attitude  taken  by  Le  Conte  in  his  book  on  "Eeligion  and 
Science"  may  be  thus  summarized  from  his  own  diction: 

The  whole  universe  of  space  and  time,  the  whole  external 
world,  is  so  much  of  the  Divine  thought  as  has  been  realized  by 
the  Divine  will.  The  scientific  study  of  nature  not  only  cannot 
destroy,  but  does  not  even  diminish,  the  mystery  of  existence; 
it  only  increases  our  sense  of  the  awfulness  and  grandeur  of  its 
mystery. 

Claiming  the  constant  immanence  of  God  in  nature,  and  that 
nature  itself  is  a  divine  revelation,  and  reveals  also  very  clearly 
the  close  connection  of  the  spirit  of  man  with  the  animating 
principle  of  brutes,  through  this  with  the  vital  principle  of 
plants,  and  through  this,  again,  with  the  physical  and  chemical 
forces  of  nature,  he  claims  that  the  general  forces  of  nature  are 
an  effluence  from  the  Divine  Person;  that  this  diffused  Divine 
energy  throughout  all  time  individuated  itself  more  and  more, 
until  finally  it  assiimed  complete  individuality,  or  separate  entity 
or  personality,  in  man ;  that  throughout  all  geological  time  spirit 
remained,  as  it  were,  in  embryo,  gradually  developing  within  the 
womb  of  Nature  until  it  came  to  birth  in  man,  and  became  capa- 
ble of  independent  life.  This  idea  of  complete  spiritual  individ- 
uality includes  every  other  characteristic  of  man — self -conscious- 
ness, free  will  or  free  agency,  moral  nature,  moral  responsibility, 
immortality,  which  he  considers  convertible  terms.  Probation, 
he  says,  is  the  necessary  result  of  man's  free  agency.  External 
nature  is  a  revelation  of  the  Deity,  but  it  is  not  so  clear  as 
to  compel  faith  in  all  men ;  it  is,  however,  so  related  to  his  nature 
that  it  becomes  a  touchstone  of  his  moral  character.  It  depends 
entirely  upon  the  temper  in  which  man  approaches  the  study  of 
nature,  what  his  free  will  chooses  to  find  there,  whether  he  sees 
in  it  a  living  God  or  only  a  dead  mechanism.  The  universality 
and  invariability  of  law  in  ever}^  realm  of  nature,  extending  even 

198 


Joseph  le  coNtE. 

to  the  inner  realm  of  consciousness,  does  not  annihilate  the  free 
will  of  man;  it  only  limits  it  to  its  legitimate  domain. 

The  word  "evolution"  occurs  repeatedly  in  this  book,  but  with- 
out any  special  emphasis.  As  stated  by  himself,  Le  Conte  was 
at  that  time  and  for  a  number  of  years  afterward,  only  a  "reluc- 
tant evolutionist,"  the  result  of  his  training  under  Louis  Agassiz. 

In  "Evolution  and  its  Kelation  to  Religious  Thought"*  Le 
Conte  enlarges  upon  the  detail,  illustrations,  and  proofs  of  the 
views  given  in  the  former  book,  but  without  materially  changing 
his  fundamental  concepts.  The  first  of  the  three  parts  of  the 
book  discusses  evolution  in  general,  followed  by  a  chapter  show- 
ing the  fundamental  role  of  Louis  Agassiz  in  laying  the  basis  of 
the  doctrine,  although  refusing  to  follow  it  out  to  its  necessary 
consequences.  Part  second  deals  with  the  evidences  of  the  truth 
of  evolution,  with  a  wealth  of  illustrative  examples,  presenting 
again  the  three  series  mentioned  in  earlier  papers,  viz.,  the  nat- 
ural-history series,  the  embryonic  or  ontogenic  series,  and  the 
geological  or  paleontological  series,  each  in  their  most  forcibly 
convincing  features;  laying  great  stress  upon  the  light  shed  on 
the  entire  subject  by  geographical  distribution.  These  presenta- 
tions of  facts  are  preliminary  to  the  third  part  of  the  book,  which 
treats  more  directly  of  the  "Relation  of  Evolution  to  Religious 
Thought." 

Recognizing  that  the  actual  effect  on  human  life  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  an  important  element  in  our  estimate  of  the  truth  of  any 
doctrine,  Le  Conte  states  as  postulates  three  processes — the 
cognition  of  external  phenomena  through  the  senses ;  the  elabora- 
tion of  these  facts  by  the  intellect,  constituting  knowledge;  and 
the  outgoing  of  this  knowledge  into  the  world  as  right  or  wise 
conduct.  All  three  are  equally  important  and  necessary.  Scien- 
tific workers  are  apt  to  consider  only  the  first  and  second  as 
necessary;  metaphysicians  only  the  second  and  third.  From 
these  omissions  arises  largely  the  so-called  conflict  between  re- 
ligion and  science.  In  disregard  of  the  first  postulate,  the  cry  of 
"wolf"  has  been  raised  at  the  enunciation  of  each  one  of  the 
fundamental  laws  of  nature  now  universally  recognized.  It  has 
been  so  likewise  with  the  law  of  evolution,  and  the  alarm  has 

*  The  writing  of  this  book  was  originally  suggested  to  Le  Conte  by- 
Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

199 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

been  proved  as  groundless  as  in  the  other  cases.  Evolution  ac- 
cording to  law  has  no  bearing  upon  materialism,  any  more  than 
has  the  law  of  gravitation;  it  simply  defines  the  manner  in  which 
contrary  to  preconceived  notions,  the  development  of  nature  has 
actually  occurred.  The  bar  to  the  speedy  settlement  of  this  con- 
flict is  pride  of  opinion,  self-conceit,  dogmatism.  The  last  is  not 
merely  on  the  theological  side;  modern  materialism  has  outdone 
the  theologian  in  this  respect;  but  the  theologian  will  of  neces- 
sity have  to  change  his  base  so  as  no  longer  to  pin  essential 
religious  truth  to  unessential,  merely  dogmatic  traditions. 

According  to  Le  Conte's  view,  the  phenomena  of  nature  are 
naught  else. than  objectified  modes  of  divine  thought;  the  forces 
of  nature  naught  else  than  different  forms  of  one  omnipresent 
divine  energy  or  will;  the  laws  of  nature  naught  else  than  the 
regular  modes  of  operation  of  the  divine  will,  invariable  because 
God  is  unchangeable.  Science  is  the  systematic  knowledge  of 
these  divine  thoughts  and  ways — a  system  of  natural  theology. 
According  to  this  view,  there  is  no  real  efficient  force  but  spirit, 
and  no  real  independent  existence  l)ut  God.    . 

"It  may  indeed  be  that  we  cannot  live  and  work  in  the  con- 
stantly realized  presence  of  the  Infinite;  that  in  our  practical 
life  and  scientific  work  we  shall  continue  to  think  of  natural 
forces  as  efficient  agents ;  but  this  attitude  of  mind,  like  our  work- 
clothes,  must  be  put  aside  when  we  return  home  to  our  inner, 
higher  life,  religious  and  philosophical." 

Le  Conte  proceeds  to  enforce  and  illustrate  this  view  quite 
elaborately,  coming  back  to  and  vindicating  the  somewhat  dis- 
credited term  "vital  force,"  or  principle,  as  fully  justified  by  its 
representing  a  distinct  form  of  force. 

"Nature,  through  the  whole  geological  history  of  the  earth, 
was  gestative  mother  of  the  spirit,  which,  after  its  long  embryonic 
development,  came  to  birth  and  independent  life  and  immortal- 
ity in  man.  .  .  .  Without  spirit-immortality  this  beautiful 
cosmos,  which  has  been  developing  into  increasing  beauty  for  so 
many  millions  of  years,  when  its  evolution  is  completed,  would 
be  precisely  as  if  it  never  had  been,  an  idiot  tale  signifying  noth- 
ing. ...  If  man's  spirit  w^ere  made  out-of-hand,  why  all 
this  elaborate  preparation  by  evolution  of  the  organic  kingdom  ?" 

Answering  the  objection  that  the  views  advanced  imply  panthe- 

200 


JOSEPH    LE5    C0NTE3. 

ism,  Le  Conte  says  that  this  can  only  happen  through  the  one- 
sided pursuit  of  purely  scientific  or  material  lines  of  reasoning, 
as  against  the  spiritual.  No  one  can  form  a  clear  conception  as 
to  how  immanence  of  the  Deity  in  nature  is  consistent  with  a 
divine  personality ;  yet  we  must  accept  both,  because  we  are  irre- 
sistibly led  to  each  of  these  by  different  lines  of  thought.  We 
must  accept  immanence  without  pantheism,  and  personality 
without  anthropomorphism.  Our  own  self-conscious  personality 
behind  brain  phenomena  compels  us  to  accept  consciousness,  will, 
thought,  personality  behind  nature.  By  a  necessary  law  of 
thought  this  concept  gradually  expands  without  limit,  until  it 
reaches  the  thought  of  an  Infinite  Person.  Just  as  in  the  case 
of  time  and  space,  we  are  compelled  to  recognize,  without  under- 
standing, their  illimitableness. 

In  discussing  the  two  views  of  man's  relation  to  nature — the 
one,  that  he  alone,  having  an  immortal  spirit,  is  immeasurably 
removed  from  the  animal  world;  the  other,  that  he  is  merely  the 
highest  member  of  the  order  of  primates,  which  includes  the 
apes — Le  Conte  admits  the  measurable  justification  of  both,  the 
first  from  the  psychical,  the  second  from  the  structural  point  of 
view;  the  two  views  are  not  irreconcilable.  Observing  physical 
and  chemical  brain-changes,  no  matter  how  closely  associated 
with  mental  or  even  localized  activities,  we  are  still  as  remote  as 
ever  from  knowing  Iww  such  changes  bring  about  consciousness, 
thought,  emotion.  There  is  doubtless  a  relation  between  physical 
and  psychic  phenomena,  but  not  in  the  same  sense  in  which  we 
use  these  terms  in  physical  science.  And  we  cannot  bridge  the 
gap  between  the  animal  and  man  without  in  the  end  logically 
attributing  an  immortal  spirit  to  plants  also  and  incurring  a 
reductio  ad  absu7-dum.  Le  Conte  believes  that  the  spirit  of  man 
was  developed  out  of  the  anima  or  conscious  principle  of  animals, 
and  this  again  out  of  the  lower  forms  of  life-force,  and  this  in 
its  turn  out  of  the  physical  and  chemical  forces  of  nature;  and 
that  at  a  certain  stage  in  this  development,  viz.,  with  man,  it  ac- 
quired the  property  of  immortality,  precisely  as  now,  in  the 
individual  history  of  each  man,  it  progressively  acquires  the 
capacity  of  abstract  thought.  This  rise  to  a  higher  plane  he 
manifestly  considers  as  occurring  somewhat  like  the  "mutations" 
now  well  known  and  accredited,   and  also   quite  unexplained. 

201 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

"With  every  new  birth  of  the  universal  energy  into  a  higher 
plane,  there  appear  new,  unexpected,  and  to  previous  experience 
wholly  unimaginable  properties  and  powers.  Why  may  not  im- 
mortality be  one  of  these  ?" 

It  is  evident  that  the  idea  of  a  causal  nexus  between  successive 
phenomena  is  a  primary  conception,  and  therefore  ineradicable 
and  certain.  In  childhood  and  in  the  uncultured  races,  external 
forces  take  the  form  of  a  personal  will  residing  in  each  object 
(fetichism).  The  next  form  is  that  of  several  personal  wills 
controlling  each  the  phenomena  of  a  different  department  of  na- 
ture (polytheism).  Finally,  in  the  highest  stage  of  culture,  it 
takes  the  form  of  one  personal  will  controlling  the  phenomena  of 
the  whole  cosmos  (monotheism),  anthropomorphic  to  the  un- 
scientific mind.  "But  anthropomorphism  has  been  driven  from 
one  department  to  the  other  by  science  and  evolution,  and  to 
those  folowing  this  line  of  thought  alone,  the  phenomena  of  na- 
ture are  relegated  to  forces  inherent  in  matter,  and  the  material 
forces  are  made  to  invade  even  the  realm  of  consciousness  and 
reduce  this  also  to  material  laws.  But  a  rational  philosophy  ad- 
mits these  two  antithetic  views  and  strives  to  reconcile  and  com- 
bine them.  This  reconciliation,  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  us,  is 
found  in  a  personal  will  immanent  in  nature  and  determining 
directly  all  its  phenomena." 

The  idea  of  the  causal  nexus  also  determines  that  of  design; 
adaptation  of  means  to  ends  is  in  our  experience  the  result  of 
thought,  and  we  cannot  conceive  it  to  result  otherwise.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  adaptive  structure  without  assuming 
intelligence  as  the  cause.  The  effect  of  science  cannot  be  to  de- 
stroy this  primary  conception,  which  is  ineradicable,  but  can  only 
exalt  and  purify  our  conceptions  of  the  Designer. 

Le  Conte  finally  considers  the  relation  of  evolution  to  the 
problem  of  evil.  External,  physical  evil  prevails  throughout  the 
animal  kingdom,  as  evidenced  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  It 
is  there  a  condition  of  effective  evolution,  and  might  be  consid- 
ered a  good  in  disguise.  But  organic  evolution,  completed  in 
man,  was  transferred  to  a  higher  plane,  and  continues  as  social 
evolution.  Unconscious  material  evolution  according  to  neces- 
sary law  is  transformed  into  psychical  evolution,  a  conscious 
voluntai'y  progress  toward  a  recognized  goal  and  according  to  a 

202 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

freer  law.  But  the  fundamental  conditions  of  evolution  have  not 
changed;  man  is  surrounded  on  every  side  with  what  at  first 
seems  to  him  an  evil  natural  environment,  against  which  he  must 
ever  struggle,  or  perish.  What  is  the  only  conceivable  remedy? 
It  is  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  thereby  acquisition  of 
power  over  nature.  But  increasing  knowledge  and  power  mean 
progressive  elevation  in  the  scale  of  psychical  being  also.  The 
evil  of  physical  disease  can  also  be  controlled  by  knowledge,  the 
achievement  of  which  also  serves  to  elevate  the  plane  of  the 
mind.  Thus,  altogether,  may  we  not  generalize  and  say  that 
physical  evil  is  good  in  its  general  effect  ? 

As  to  moral  evil,  the  case  is  not  so  clear.  Yet  the  course  of 
human  development,  whether  individual  or  racial,  is  from  inno- 
cence, a  pre-established  harmony  of  spiritual  activities,  to  virtue, 
self-established,  through  more  or  less  discord  and  conflict.  Here 
again,  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  God  and  obedience  thereto  is  the 
remedy — tlie  will  to  know  and  the  effort  to  obey  them.  We  can- 
not conceive  of  a  moral  being  without  freedom  to  choose;  we 
cannot  conceive  of  virtue  without  a  successful  conflict  with 
solicitations  to  debasement.  It  is  because  these  solicitations  are 
so  strong,  and  often  overcome  us,  that  we  regard  these  themselves 
as  essential  evil,  instead  of  our  weak  surrender  to  them.  All  evil 
consists  in  the  dominance  of  the  lower  over  the  higher.  True 
virtue  consists,  not  in  the  ertirpation  of  the  lower,  which  means 
asceticism,  but  in  its  subjection  to  the  higher,  for  the  higher  is 
nourished  by  its  connection  with  the  more  robust  lower;  and  the 
lower  is  purified,  refined,  and  glorified  by  its  connection  with 
the  diviner  higher,  and  by  this  mutual  connection  the  whole 
plane  of  being  is  elevated.  It  is  only  by  action  and  reaction  of 
all  parts  of  our  complex  nature  that  true  virtue  is  attained. 

Le  Conte's  early  view  of  the  older  methods  of  metaphysics, 
formed  as  the  result  of  reading  many  philosophical  books,  may 
be  thus  formulated:  "Metaphysics  ever  strives  after  ultimate 
truth,  which  is  unattainable,  and  of  course  fails  .  .  .  de- 
ludes us  with  promises  of  absolute  knowledge,  food  for  the 
gods;  cheats  us  with  gilded  apples  full  of  ashes.  It  is  indeed 
only  mental  activity,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  until  scientific 
methods  are  adopted  by  metaphysicians.^' 

It  will  be  seen,  however,  that  later  he  abated  somewhat  the 

203 


KATiONAL    ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

rigor  of  liis  disapproval  and  actively  participated  in  the  discus- 
sions of  noted  metaphysicians.  These  discussions  were  largely 
oral,  and  occurred  in  the  meetings  of  the  Philosophical  Union 
at  the  University  of  California;  a  limited  number  of  them 
passed  into  print  in  permanent  form.  Among  these  the  most 
interesting  is  the  book  containing  the  discussion  between  Eoyce, 
Howison,  Le  Conte,  and  Mezes  on  "The  Conception  of  God." 
Le  Conte's  latest  (printed,  but  not  published)  discussion  is  a 
paper  entitled  "Evolutional  Idealism/'  giving  his  view  of  the 
relations  ])etween  God,  nature,  and  man,  and  his  conception  of 
the  ether  as  the  substratum  upon  which  the  human  spirit  is 
developed,  and  from  which,  after  death,  may  be  derived  the 
spiritual  body,  which  he  postulates  as  the  condition  of  personal 
immortality  and  without  which  a  perceptionless  spirit — mere 
disembodied  thought  without  personality — would  seem  to  be 
offered  us.  There  appear  from  this  to  be  three  kinds  of  "sub- 
stance"— gross  matter,  ethereal  matter  or  ether,  and  energy,  i.  e., 
spirit.  The  ether  is  indissolubly  associated  with  all  forms  of 
energy,  such  as  light,  electricity,  heat,  chemism.  Life  is  a  form 
of  energy,  so  the  ether  is  also  the  life-bearer.  Xow  spirit  is  just 
essential  energy  itself,  and  therefore  the  ether  must  be  associ- 
ciated  with  spirit ;  so  it  is  also  the  spirit-bearer.  Life  and  spirit 
differ  from  all  lower  forms  of  energy  in  being  individuated,  i.  e., 
endowed  with  self-activity.  All  three  substances  are  progress- 
ively individuated  in  evolution :  Energy  completely  individuated 
is  created  spirit ;  the  ether,  the  energy-bearer,  individuated,  would 
be  the  ethereal  (or  spiritual)  body;  gross  matter,  as  external 
vestment  or  habitation,  is  individuated  into  the  live  material 
body.  The  latter  completes  its  organization  in  animals ;  but  the 
ethereal  body  completes  its  organization  only  in  man,  pari  passu 
with  the  individuation  of  spirit. 

The  material  body  is  the  matrix  for  the  organization  of  the 
ethereal  one;  the  brain  seems  to  be  the  womb  in  which  the  ether 
becomes  organized  into  the  ethereal  body.  This  organization, 
however,  remains  incomplete  until,  in  man,  the  cooperation  of 
self  consciousness  and  free  will  begins. 

"All  this,"  he  adds,  "may  seem  but  a  sort  of  refined  material- 
ism. Not  so.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  consistent  with  the  most 
thoroughgoing  idealism,  for  both  gross  matter  and  the  ether  are 

204 


JOSEJPH    LE    CONTE. 

but  manifestations  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  self-conditioning 
forms  of  his  consciousness  called  time  and  space — are  but  differ- 
ent grades  of  a  downward  effluence  from  the  Divine  Person;  an 
effluence  which  again  rises,  by  progressive  organization  in  con- 
nection with  the  corresponding  individuation  of  a  finite  portion 
of  Divine  Energy,  to  the  plane  of  the  spirit  from  which  it  came. 
The  whole  universe  of  created  being  is  thus  an  evolutional  series, 
every  term  of  which  is  a  form  of  the  energy  of  spirit/' 

Howison*  comments  thus,  in  part,  upon  the  "Evolutional 
Idealism"  of  Le  Conte,  as  set  forth  in  the  preceding  abstracts: 

"I  confess  that  by  the  lucid  force  of  Dr.  Le  Conte's  reasonings 
and  the  great  beauty  of  his  conclusions  I  am  constantly  tempted 
to  yield  him  my  entire  assent.  It  is  only  by  the  low  murmurs  of 
half-suppressed  conviction  that  I  am  roused  from  this  state  of 
fascination  to.  take  up  again  the  task  of  rigid  thought.     But 

.  .  I  will  say  that  the  stability  of  his  system  depends,  I 
think,  upon  two  things:  First,  whether  it  supplies  sufficient 
proof  that  the  Immanent  Energy  which  is  the  cause  of  evolution 
is  indeed  a  Cosmic  Consciousness;  second,  whether,  if  real,  hav- 
ing— as  it  must  have — the  attribute  of  immanence  in  nature,  it 
is  compatible  with  the  freedom  and  the  personal  immortality  at 
which  the  system  aims."  In  discussing  these  two  points,  Howi- 
son further  says :  "As  regards  the  first  of  these  questions,  I  feel 
bound  to  say  that  the  proof  offered  for  the  Cosmic  Conscious- 
ness seems  to  me  insufficient,"  going  on  to  state  his  reasons  for 
this  opinion.  On  the  second  question,  he  says:  "I  cannot  see 
how  a  Cosmic  Consciousness,  with  its  intrinsic  immanence  in 
nature,  can  be  reconciled  with  true  freedom  at  all;  and  its  con- 
sistency with  an  immortality  truly  personal  is  to  me  beset  with 
obscure  alternatives,  between  which  either  the  certainty  or  else 
the  value  of  the  life  to  come  vanishes  away." 

Both  these  positions  are  extendedly  argued  by  Howison  in  the 
sequel,  and  still  farther  in  the  volume  of  essays  separately  pub- 
lished by  him  under  the  general  title  "The  Limits  of  Evolution." 
In  the  first  of  these  he  dwells  with  special  emphasis  upon  the 
"unbridgeable  gaps"  which,  he  claims,  exist  between  inorganic 
and  organic  nature  and  between    the    natural    and    spiritual 

*The  Conception  of  God,  p.  115. 

205 


National  academy  of  sciences. 

worlds,  interrupting  the  continuity  of  evolution;  and  he  under- 
takes to  show  that  there  is  a  farther  break  between  physiological 
and  logical  genesis. 

Royce  says:  "I  must  frankly  confess  that  ...  1  have 
never  been  able  to  give  to  this  doctrine  (of  evolution),  justly 
central  as  it  is  in  the  world  of  recent  empirical  science,  the  far- 
reaching,  the  philosophical,  the  universal  significance  which  Le 
Conte  still  attributes  to  this  aspect  of  reality.  Evolution  is,  to 
me,  not  a  process  in  the  light  of  which  we  can  learn  much  either 
concerning  the  Absolute,  or  concerning  the  relation  of  the  eternal 
to  the  temporal  world.^' 

It  is,  of  course,  beyond  the  province  of  this  memoir  to  at- 
tempt the  settlement  of  such  an  issue  as  this  between  Le  Conte 
and  these  critics,  whom  he  himself  considered  well  qualified  for 
their  task.  Le  Conte  at  all  events  was  in  no  wise  disconcerted  by 
their  contentions.  In  the  introduction  to  '^The  Conception  of 
God"  he  authorized  the  editor  to  say,  in  his  behalf,  that  he 
"came  out  of  the  whole  discussion,  with  its  objections  to  his  own 
system  on  all  hands,  without  feeling  that  he  must  retract  or  ma- 
terially alter  the  propositions  which  give  it  a  distinguishing 
character."  The  writer  of  this  memoir  may  add  that  in  conver- 
sation with  him,  Le  Conte  repeatedly  said  that  in  the  farther 
cooperative  progress  of  science  and  philosophy,  the  alleged  gaps 
would  be  sure  to  disappear. 

LE  CONTE's  own  estimate  OF  HIS  LIFE-WORK. 

In  concluding  his  autobiography,  Le  Conte  gives  the  following 
summary  estimate  of  his  life-work: 

"And  now,  looking  back  on  a  long  life  of  incessant  activity, 
what  have  I  done  of  value  to  the  world?  what  have  I  added  to 
human  thought?  what  influences  for  good  may  I  hope  to  leave 
behind  me? 

"I.  In  science,  touching  only  the  most  important  points : 

"(«)  My  paper  in  1859  on  The  Correlation  of  Physical, 
Chemical  and  Vital  Force'  gave,  I  think,  both  impulse  and 
greater  definiteness  to  scientific  thought  on  that  subject.  Car- 
penter in  the  last  edition  of  his  Physiolog}^  gives  me  credit  for  a 
distinct  advance  in  this  subject. 

"(6)  My  researches  on  the  phenomena  of  binocular  vision  I 

206 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

am  sure  did  clear  up  thought  in  this  field.  I  claim,  and  have 
generally  been  accorded,  the  credit  of  several  original  thoughts, 
which  have  remained  a  permanent  possession  of  science:  (1) 
The  demonstration  of  the  real  nature  of  the  Horopter;  (2)  the 
demonstration  of  the  true  nature  of  the  theory  of  binocular  per- 
spective; (3)  the  demonstration  of  certain  fundamental  physical 
phenomena  in  binocular  vision,  and  the  devising  of  a  new  mode 
of  diagrammatic  representation  based  thereon.  These  phenomena 
had  been  observed  by  some,  but  not  understood;  their  explana- 
tion had  been  hinted  at  by  others,  but  not  clearly  brought  out: 
(4)  the  explanation,  for  the  first  time,  of  certain  peculiarities  of 
phantom  planes. 

"(c)  In  geology,  I  believe  some  real,  substantial  advance  was 
made  in  my  series  of  papers  (1)  on  the  structure  and  origin  of 
mountain  ranges;  (2)  on  the  genesis  of  metalliferous  veins;  (3) 
especially  in  that  on  critical  periods  in  the  history  of  the  earth; 
(4)  on  the  jdemonstration  of  the  Ozarkian  or,  better,  the  Sierran 
epoch  as  one  of  great  importance  m  the  history  of  the  earth.  I 
might  mention  several  others  tliat  are  of  prime  importance,  but 
I  am  willing  to  stand  l)y  these.* 

''(d)  In  biology,  my  views  on  glycogeny,  although  not  yet 
certain,  have  undoubtedly  contributed  to  clearness  of  scientific 
thought  on  that  important  subject. 

"II.  In  philosophy: 

"I  look  back  with  especial  pleasure  on  my  writings  on  evolu- 
tion. I  lay  no  claim  to  the  discovery  of  new  facts  bearing  on  the 
theory  of  evolution,  but  only  to  have  cleared  up  its  nature  and 
scope,  and  especially  to  have  shown  its  true  relations  to  religious 
thought.  It  is  well  to  stop  a  moment  to  show  the  roles  of  differ- 
ent thinkers  in  the  advance  of  this  subject.  Leaving  out  of  con- 
sideration mere  vague  philosophic  speculations,  like  those  of  the 
ancient  philosophers,  and  of  Swedenborg  in  more  modern  times, 
I  would  say  that  the  role  of  Lamarck  was  to  introduce  evolution 
as  a  scientific  theory ;  that  of  Darwin,  to  present  the  theory  in 

♦Le  Conte's  omission  to  mention  in  the  above  list  his  important  ex- 
ploration and  delimitation  of  the  "Great  Lava  Flood  of  the  North- 
west" and  the  "Structure  and  Age  of  the  Cascade  Mountains"  is  char- 
acteristic of  his  slight  regard  for  mere  detail  work  as  against  the 
philosophical  discussions  and  conclusions  based  thereon. 

207 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

such  wise  as  to  make  it  acceptable  to  and  accepted  by  the  scien- 
tific mind;  that  of  Huxley,  to  fight  the  battles  of  evolution  and 
to  win  its  acceptance  by  the  intelligent  popular  mind;  that  of 
Spencer,  to  generalize  it  into  a  universal  law  of  nature,  thus 
making  it  a  philosophy  as  well  as  a  scientific  theory.  Finally  it 
was  left  to  American  thinkers  to  show  that  a  materialistic  impli- 
cation is  unwarranted;  that  evolution  is  entirely  consistent  with 
a  rational  theism  and  with  other  fundamental  religious  beliefs. 
My  own  work  has  been  chiefly  in  this  direction.  In  my  lec- 
tures in  1872  on  ^Religion  and  Science'  I  might  be  called  a  re- 
luctant evolutionist;  yet  even  then,  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of 
the  book,  I  tried  to  show  the  mode  of  origin  of  the  spirit  of  man 
from  the  psyche  of  animals  by  a  process  of  evolution.  In  a  few 
years,  however,  I  was  an  evolutionist,  thorough  and  enthusi- 
astic. Enthusiastic  not  only  because  it  is  true,  and  all  truth  is 
the  image  of  God  in  the  human  reason,  but  also  because  of  all 
laws  of  nature  it  is  by  far  the  most  religious — that  is,  in  accord 
with  religious  philosophic  thmight.  It  is,  indeed,  great  tidings 
.of  Joy  which  shall  be  to  all  peoples.  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not 
the  gospel !  Literally,  it  can  bo  shown  that  all  the  apparently 
irreligious  and  materialistic  implications  of  science  are  reversed 
by  this  last  child  of  science,  or  rather  this  daughter  of  the  mar- 
riage of  science  and  philosophy.  During  all  my  life  I  have 
striven  earnestly  to  show  this;  my  book  on  ^Evolution  and  Its 
Relation  to  Religious  Thought'  is  the  embodiment  of  the  result 
of  these  strivings,  although  I  believe  that  if  I  wrote  it  again  I 
could  add  much  to  the  argument.  I  began  this  line  of  thought 
in  1871,  and  believe,  and  therefore  claim,  that  I  was  the  pioneer 
in  the  reaction  against  the  materialistic  and  irreligious  implica- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  I  look  with  greater  pleasure 
on  this  than  on  anything  else  that  I  have  done.  At  first  I  suf- 
fered some,  but  not  much,  obloquy  on  the  part  of  the  extreme 
orthodox  people ;  but  I  have  lived  to  see  this  pass  away,  and  all 
intelligent  clergymen  coming  to  my  position. 

"All,  or  nearly  all,  of  my  philosophic  writings  are  more  or  less 
connected  with  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  and  I  regard  these  as 
among  the  most  important  of  my  writings.  Indeed,  one  of  my 
friends  thinks  that  the  best  and  most  permanent  that  I  have 
done  is  in  the  domain  of  philosophy  rather  than  in  that  of  sci- 

208 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

ence  proper.  But  he  is  a  philosopher;  perhaps  my  scientific 
friends  think  differently." 

It  would  be  of  interest  to  quote,  as  corollaries  to  Le  Conte's 
estimate  of  his  own  work,  given  above,  from  some  of  the  numer- 
ous obituary  articles  published  in  magazines  and  periodicals 
shortly  after  his  death;  but  to  do  so  would  exceed  the  limits  of 
this  memoir.  Among  them  may  be  specially  mentioned  those 
written  by  several  of  his  colleagues:  Professors  T.  R.  Bacon,* 
S.  B.  Christy,!  A.  C.  Lawson,*  and 'J.  C.  Merriam;*  Chas.  M. 
Bakewell,*  of  Yale,  and  Josiah  Koyce,]:  of  Harvard.  That  of 
the  latter,  formerly  Le  Conte's  pupil,  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  is  in  part  as  follows :  ' 

"His  wealth  of  knowledge,  his  instinct  for  order  and  lucidity 
of  reflection,  have  indeed  always  remained  my  hopelessly  distant 
ideal.  I  believe  in  the  world's  unity,  and  by  indirect  proof  feel 
sure  of  it ;  but  the  world  of  facts  will  never  seem  to  my  unaided 
thought  as  perfect  and  as  clearly  visible  a  union  of  the  one  and 
many  of  harmonious  principles  and  of  multitudinous  empirical 
illustrations  as  it  seemed  to  me  while  I  listened  to  his  lectures." 

All  these  articles  alike  bear  witness  to  Le  Conte's  intellectual 
greatness  and  the  Iftvableness  of  his  character. 

Space  forbids  further  quotations  from  othei-s.  The  writer's 
own  estimate,*  written  under  the  first  impression  of  the  news 
of  Le  Conte's  death,  summarizes  the  views  still  held  by  him : 

"The  death  of  Dr.  Joseph  Le  Conte  removes  one  of  the  fore- 
most thinkers  and  scientific  men  of  the  time ;  one  whose  writings 
and  modes  of  thought  have  influenced  the  progress  of  science, 
and  of  scientific  as  well  as  popular  opinion,  throughout  the  civil- 
ized world.  He  was  prominent  in  the  now  fast-thinning  ranks 
of  those  who,  like  Louis  Agassiz,  J.  D.  Dana,  and  Asa  Gray,  in 
the  New,  and  Lyell,  0<^rsted,  Darwin,  and  Wallace,  in  the  Old 
World,  thought  and  found  it  not  only  possible,  but  necessary, 
to  be  something  more  than  specialists  in  one  domain  of  science, 
in  order  to  understand  its  full  meanings  and  bearings  upon  other 
branches   and   its   place   in   the    world-plan.     Le    Conte   never 


♦University  of  California  Magazine,  September,  1001. 
fTrans.  Am.  Inst,  of  Mining  Engineers,  Mexican  meeting,  Novem- 
ber, 1901. 

^International  Monthly,  September,  1901. 

209 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 

doubted  the  existence  of  such  a  plan,  and  he  looked  upon  nature 
reverently  as  one  part  of  its  manifestations;  but  without  under- 
valuing for  a  moment  the  other,  the  spiritual  part,  which  is  now 
so  commonly  cast  aside  as  a  mere  '^property  of  matter  in  an  ad- 
vanced state  of  evolution;'  while,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
still  those  who  claim  to  evolve  its  nature  from  their  inner  con- 
sciousness, independently  of  observed  phenomena.  Le  Conte's 
early  education  and  experience  as  a  physician  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  broad  knowledge  which  later  made  him  equally  at 
home  in  the  purely  ph3^sical  sciences  and  in  the  biological  field. 
While  his  geological  writings  are,  perhaps,  best  known  to  the 
American  public  through  the  wide  use  made  of  his  books  on  that 
subject,  both  in  universities  and  in  the  secondary  schools,  his 
early  and  warm  advocacy  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  has  prob- 
ably served  most  to  make  him  known  and  appreciated  in  the  Old 
World,  where  he  was  warmly  welcomed  and  honored  in  scientific 
assemblies,  among  the  foremost  men. 

"It  is  sometimes  said  that  those  who  undertake  to  generalize 
in  science  are  apt  to  be  unahle  to  make  accurate  ol)servations 
themselves.  While  this  is  true  in  some  cases,  it  was  certainly 
otherwise  in  that  of  Le  Conte.  His  scientific  writings  and 
special  papers  show  an  eminent  capacity  for  close  observation; 
yet  his  glance  was  always  upon  the  bearings  of  what  he  saw, 
upon  general  problems  rather  than  upon  the  minor  details  of 
each  field  of  view,  which  he  was  quite  content  to  leave  to  oth- 
ers. At  the  same  time,  he  had  the  true  scientific  spirit,  in  the 
absence  of  all  dogmatism  and  the  readiness  at  all  times  to 
consider  candidly  any  observations  or  opinions  at  variance 
with  his  previous  conclusions.  He  considered  the  cultivation 
of  the  spirit  of  truthfulness,  candor,  and  readiness  to  revise 
one's  opinions  and  conclusions  as  constituting  one  of  the 
*  strongest  claims  of  natural  science  as  an  educational  factor, 
in  contradistinction  to  the  acceptance  of  mere  opinions  and 
precedents  that  is  so  common  a  result  of  exclusive  literary  and 
philosophical  study.  The  personal  gentleness  for  which  he 
was  so  well  known  and  beloved  was  deeply  grounded  in  the 
absence  of  any  claim  to  infallibility  for  himself. 

"It  is  not  easy  to  overestimate  the  influence  he  has  exerted 
in  rectifying  the  popular  idea  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution 

210 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE, 

necessarily  tends  to  materialism,  if  not  atheism — a  misconcep- 
tion of  its  true  import  which  is  unfortunately  still  shared  by 
the  extremists  both  on  the  scientific  and  religious  side. 

"As  shown  above  in  the  discussion  of  his  philosophical  views, 
Le  Conte  held  that,  so  far  from  this,  it  inculcates  the  highest 
ideal  of  an  intelligent  world-plan;  and  he  staunchly  maintained 
not  only  its  compatibility  with  Christian  religious  belief,  but 
that,  by  elevating  nature  into  the  realm  of  teleologic  thought 
and  aspiration,  it  offers  a  much  higher  point  of  view  than 
could  be  derived  from  any  of  the  'orthodox'  views  of  the  method 
of  creation.  This  part  of  his  influence  will,  perhaps,  be. most 
missed  in  the  present  state  and  tendency  of  scientific  thought; 
particularly  among  the  younger  men  of  science,  whose  eagerness 
to  specialize  premature^  almost  inevitably  tends  to  prevent  such 
catholicity  of  views  and  encyclopedic  knowledge  as  characterized 
Dr.  Le  Conte. 

"It  was  Le  Conte  through  whom  the  University  of  California 
first  became  known  to  the  outside  world  as  a  school  and  center 
of  science  on  the  western  border  of  the  continent;  and  for  a 
number  of  years  he  almost  alone  kept  it  in  view  of  the  world 
of  science.  His  presence  and  connection  with  the  tJniversity 
was  largely  instrumental  in  attracting  to  it  other  men  who 
otherwise  would  have  hesitated  to  emigrate  from  their  eastern 
homes  to  what  was  then  the  outskirts  of  civilization;  and  his 
ceaseless  scientific  activity  acted  as  a  strong  stimulus  both  to 
his  colleagues  and  to  the  students  coming  under  his  instruc- 
tion, whose  affection  and  esteem  remained  with  him  through 
life.  He  preferred  this  kind  of  activity  to  the  more  ambitious 
prospects  that  were  many  times  open  to  him;  he  shrank  from 
anything  that  would  force  him  from  the  ideal  world  in  which 
he  lived  into  active  contact  with  executive  or  administrative 
functions.  His  modesty  and  simplicity  survived,  unscathed, 
the  applause  and  laudations  bestowed  upon  him,  and  his  strong 
will  and  cheerful  disposition  carried  him  up  to  a  mature  age  in 
undiminished  mental  vigor,  despite  an  apparently  frail  body. 

"His  death  brings  heavy  loss  to  his  university  and  to  the  world 
of  thought  at  large,  in  which  he  occupied  so  high  and  exceptional 
a  position/' 

(21)  211 


NATIONAL    ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


WRITINGS  OF  JOSEPH  LE  CONTE. 

1850.  Science  of  Medicine,  i^o.  Med.  and  Surg.  Jour. 

1853.  Salt  Lakes,  Ga.  Univ.  Mag.,  April. 

1854.  Sun  Drawing  Water,  Ga.  Univ.  Mag.,  September. 

1855.  Utilitarianism,  Ga.  XJniv.  Mag.,  March. 

1856.  Classics  vs.  Mathematics,  Ga.  Univ.  Mag.,  June. 
Gulf-stream  Agency  in  the  Formation  of  Florida,  Am.   Assoc. 

Adv.  Sci.,  Proc,  10:303. 

1857.  Geology  in  a  Course  of  Education,  Inaugural  Address. 
Three  Lectures  on  Coal,  Smithsonian  Institution,  Rep.,  p.  119. 

1858.  Morphology  and  its  Connection  with  Fine  Art,  So.  Pres.  R. 

1859.  Correlation  of  Forces  and  Conservation  of  Force  fn  Vital  Phe- 

nomena, Am.  Assoc.  Adv.  Sci.,  Proc,  13 :  187. 
Same,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  78 :  305. 

Same,  with  Stewart,  B.,  Conservation  of  Energy,  p.  169. 
Formation  of  Continents,  Theory  of,  Canadian  Nat.,  4. 
Principles  of  a  Liberal  Education,  So.  Pres.  R. 

1860.  Female  Education,  So.  Pres.  R. 

Scientific  Relation  of  Sociology  to  Biology,  Po2).  Sci.  Monthly. 

XIV. 

1861.  The  School,  the  College,  and  the  University,  So.  Pres.  R. 
1863.  Nature  and  Uses  of  Art.  Overland  Monthly.  2d  ser.,  \. 

1866.  Artificial    Production    of    Sex,    ISlashr.    Join:    Med.    and    Surg., 

1  :  296. 

1867.  Same,  Nashr.  Jour.  Med.  and  Snrg.,  2:  3:^2. 
1869.  Binocular  A^isicm,  Phenomena  of : 

1.  Adjustments  of  the  Eye,  Ainer.  Jour.  Sci.,  97 :  68. 

2.  Rotation  of  the  Eye  on  the  Optic  Axis  in  Convergence,  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.,  97:153. 

;».  On  the  Horopter,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  97:  168. 

1871.  Binocular  Vision,  Phenomena  of : 

4.  New   Mode  of  Representing   Visual    Phenomena,   Ant.   Jour. 
Sci.,  101:33. 

On  an  Optical  Illusion,  Phil.  M. 

5.  Stereoscopic  Phenomena,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  102 :  1. 

6.  So-called  Images  of  Illusion,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  102 :  315,  417. 
Law  of  Circulation  in  Nature,  Calif.  Teachers'  Inst.,  Rep. 

1872.  Les  Images  d'lllusion  et  la  Theorie  du  Relief  Binoculaire,  Ar- 

chives des  Sci.,  41 :  394. 
Earthquakes,  Univ.  of  Calif.  Echo. 
Formation  of  Greater  Inequalities  of  Earth's  Surface,  Theory 

of,  Am.  Jour,  Sci.,  104 :  345,  460. 

212 


JOSEJPH   LE    CONTE. 

1873.  AgassK  Memorial  Address,  Calif.  Acad.  Sei.,  Rep.,  p.  230. 
Ancient  Glaciers  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.     No.  1,  Am.  Jour.  Sci., 

105 :  325. 
Correlation  of  Vital  with  Physical  and  Chemical  Forces,  Pop. 

Sci.  Mo.,  4:  156. 
Flight  of  Birds:  Poising,  Nature,  9:5. 
Formation   of    the    Greater    Inequalities    of    Earth's    Surface. 

Answer  to  Sterry  Hunt's  Criticism,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  105 :  448. 
Religion  and  Science.     1  vol.,  8  vo.,  324  pp. 

1874.  Great  Lava  Flood  of  the  Northwest  and  Structure  and  Age  of 

the  Cascade  Mountains,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  107 :  167,  257. 

1875.  The  Extinct  Volcanoes  about  Lake  Mono  and  their  Relations  to 

the  Glacial  Drift,  Am.  'Jour.  Sci.,  108  :  35. 
Ancient  Glaciers  of  the  Sierra : 
2.  Lake  Valley  Glacier,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  110: 120. 
Binocular  Vision,  Phenomena  of: 

7.  Position  of  the  Eyes  in  Sleepiness,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  109 :  159. 

8.  In  Binocular  Vision  the  Law  of  CorresiX)nding  Points  may  be 
Opposed  to  the  Law  of  Direction,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  109:  1(>4. 

9.  Comparative  IMiysiology  of  Binocular  Vision,  Am.  Jour.  Sci., 
109 :  164. 

A  Journal  of  Ramblings  through  the  High  Sierra.     San  Fran- 
cisco, 1875.     Republished,  Bull.  3,  Sierra  Club,  1890. 
Instinct  and  Intelligence,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  7 :  653. 
Rate  of  Growth  in  Corals,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  110 :  34. 

1876.  Evidences  of  Horizontal  Crushing  in  the  Formation  of  the  Coast 

Ranges  of  California,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  Ill  :  297. 

1877.  Binocular  Phenomena  Observed  by  Prof.  Nipher,  Am.  Jour.  Sci., 

115 :  252. 
Binocular  Vision,  Phenomena  of : 

10.  Structure  of  Crystalline  Lens  and  its  Relation  to  Periscop- 
ism,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  114 :  191. 

Critical  Periods  in  the  History  of  the  Earth  and  their  Relation 
to  Evolution  and  on  the  Quaternary  as  Such  a  Period,  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.,  114:99. 

Evolution  in  Relation  to  Materialism,  Chit  Chat  Club. 

Prairie  Mounds,  Nature,  15  :  530. 

Wallace's  Distribution  of  Species,  Bulletin,  January  20. 

1878.  Binocular  Relief,  Theory  of,  Phil.  M. 

Elements  of  Geology.     Illustrated.     588  pp.,  large  8vo. 
Geological  Climate  and  Time,  Nature,  18 :  668. 
'Glycogenic    Function    of    the    Liver.     No.    1,    Am.    Jour.    Sci., 

115 :  99. 
Man's  Place  in  Nature,  Princ.  R.,  N.  S.,  2 :  776. 
Science  and  Mental  Improvement,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  13 :  96. 

213 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

Structure  and  Origin  of  Mountains,  witli  Special  Reference  to 
Some  Objections  to  the  Contractional  Theory,  Am.  Jour.  Sci., 
116 :  95. 

1879.  Genesis  of  Sex,  Pop.  ScL  Mo.,  16 :  67. 

Scientific    Relation    of    Sociology    to    Biology,    Pop.    Sci.    Mo., 

14 :  325,  425. 
Volcanoes  about  Lake  Mono  and  their  Relation  to  the  Glacial 

Drift,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  118 :  35. 

1880.  Binocular  Vision,  Phenomena  ofr 

11.  Laws  of  Ocular  Motion,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  120 :  83. 

Coral  Reefs  and  Islands,  Nature,  22 :  558. 

Effect  of  Mixture  of  Races  on  Human  Progress,  Berkeley  Q., 

1 :  81. 
Genesis  of  Sex,  Hevue  Scientifique. 
Glycogenic    Functions   of   the   Liver.     No.    2,    Am.    Jour.    Sci., 

119 :  25. 
Old  River-beds  of  California,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  119 :  176. 
The  School,  the  College,  and  the  University,  Princ.  R.,  N.  S., 

5 :  177. 

1881.  Comte's  Classification  of  Sciences,  Berkeley  Q.,  2 :  97. 
Devilution,  Occident,  University  of  California. 
Drowning,  to  Prevent,  by  Floating,  Nature,  24 :  260. 
Evolution  in  Relation  to  Materialism,  Princ.  R.,  N.  S.,  7. 
Geology  of  California,  in  Phelps,  A.,  Contemp.  Biog.,  1 :  290. 
Illustrations   of   a   Law   of   Evolution   of   Thought,   Princ.    R., 

N.  S.,  8  :  378. 

Sight :  Principles  of  Monocular  and  Binocular  Vision.  Illus- 
trated. 

Mr.  Wallace's  Island  Life,  Calif ornian,  3 :  485. 

1882.  Denudation,  Rate  of,  Geol.  May.,  9 :  289. 
Higher  Utilities  ol  Science,  GaUf ornian,  5  :  30(>. 
Judd  on  Volcanoes,  Notice  of,  Calif  ornian,  5 :  85. 
Mineral-vein   Formation   Now    in   Progress    at    Sulphur    Bank, 

Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  124 :  23. 

1883.  Carson  Foot-prints,  Calif.  Acad.  Sci.,  Bull. 
Same.  Nature,  28:  101. 

Also  in  Independent  and  Occident. 

Domestic  Ducks  that  Fly  Abroad  Like  Pigeons,  Sci.,  1 :  249. 
Genesis  of  Metalliferous  Veins,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  126 : 1. 
Mineral-vein   Formation    at    Steamboat    Springs,    Nevada,    Am. 

Jour.  Sci.,  125  :  424. 
Movement  of  the  Arms  in  Walking,  Sci.,  1  :  220. 
Mutual  Relation  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Culture,  Overland, 

2d  ser.,  1 :  10. 
Reefs,  Keys,  and  Peninsula  of  Florida,  Sci.,  2 :  764. 

214 


JOSEPH    LEJ    CONTE. 

Science  and  Literature,  Overland,  2d  ser.,  1  Feb. ;  suppl.,  p.  8. 
Wright's  "Religion  and  Science,"  Review  of,  8ci.,  1 :  543. 

1884.  Carrying  Power  of  Fluid  Currents,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  24 :  555. 
Compend  of  Geology  for  High  Schools.     1  vol.,  8  vo.,  42G  pp. 
Continent-formation,  Geol.  M. 

Elevation  and  Subsidence  of  the  Earth-crust,  Nature,  29 :  212. 
Fiske's  "ICxcursions  of  an  Evolutionist,"  Review  of,  Overlai}d, 

2d  ser.,  3 :  329. 
Guyot's  "Creation,"  Review  of,  ScL,  3 :  599. 
Optical  Phenomena  :  Phantom  Images,  Sci.,  3 :  404. 
Pressure  of  Currents,  Mining  Record,  16:341. 
Psychical  Relation  of  Man  to  Animals,  Princ.  R.,  N.  S.,  13. 
Right-sidedness :    Letter    on    Deflection    in    Walking,    Nature, 

29 :  452. 
Same  (continued).  Nature,  30:76. 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  Review  of  2d  and  3d  Reports 

of,  Sci.,  4 :  62. 

1885.  Earthciuake  Shocks  More  Violent  on  the  Surface,  Sci.,  6 :  540. 
General  Principles  of  Art  and  their  Application  to  the  Novel, 

Overland,  2d  ser.,  5 :  337. 

Immortality  in  Modern  Thought,  Sci.,  6 :  126. 

Relations  of  Berkeley  to  Modern  Religious  Thought,  Berkeleyan. 

Royce's  "Religious  Aspects  of  Philosophy,"  Review  of.  Overland, 
2d  ser.,  5 :  542. 

Shad  Propagation  'on  the  Atlantic  Coast,  Result  of,  Sci.,  6 :  520. 

Warren's  "Paradise  Found,"  Review  of,  Sci.,  5 :  406. 
3886.  "Louis  Agassiz,  his  Life  and  Correspondence,"  Review  of.  Over- 
land, 2d  ser.,  7 :  103. 

Double  Vision,  Sci.,  7 :  506. 

Fiske's  "Darwinism  and  Other  Essays,"  Review  of.  Overland, 
2d  ser.,  7 :  334. 

Germ  of  Hydrophobia,  Sci.,  8 :  102. 

Glycogenic  Functions  of  the  Liver,  Am.  Nat.,  20,  pt.  1 :  473. 

Inherited  Polydactylism,  Sci.,  8 :  166. 

Permanence  of  Continents  and  Ocean-basins  and  Development 
of  North  American  Continent,  Geol.  M. 

Pharyngeal  Respiratory  Movements  of  Adult  Amphibia  under 
Water,  Sci.,  7:462. 

Post-Tertiary  Elevation  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  as  Shown  by  the 
River-beds,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  132 :  167. 
1887.  Binocular  Vision,  Phenomena  of : 

12.  Phantom  Images  Formed  by  Binocular  Combination  of  Reg- 
ular Figures,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  134 :  97. 

Depth  of  Earthquake  Focus,  Sci.,  10 :  22. 

Flora  of  the  Coast  Islands  of  California  in  Relation  to  Recent 

215 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 

Changes  in  Physical  Geography,  Calif.  Acad.  Sci.,  Bull.  No. 

8:515. 
Same,  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  134:457. 
Relation  of  Agassiz  to  the  Theory  of  Evohition.  Fop.  (Sfoi,  Mo., 

32:  17. 
Relation  of  Biology  to  Sociology,  Berkeleyan,  23 :  123. 
Relation  of  Evolution  to  Religious  Thought.     (Pamphlet.) 
Sense-training  and  Hand-training  in  the  Public  Schools,  Educ. 

Journal.,  March. 
Sound-blindness,  ScL,  10 :  312. 

Star  Rays  or  Rays  Streaming  from  Light,  Sci.,  9 :  14. 
What  is  Evolution?  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  31 :  721. 

1888.  Binocular  Vision :  Answer  to  Hyslop,  Sci.,  11 :  252. 
Evolution,  Difficulty  in.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  33 :  125. 

Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought.     1  vol.,  8  vo., 

344  pp. 
Experiments  in  Vision,  Sci.,  11 :  252. 
Glacial  Motion,  Philosoph.  M. 

Hark's  "Unity  of  the  Truth,"  Review  of.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  33 :  699. 
Human  Beings  as  Pack-animals,  Sci.,  11:290. 
Monocular  Vision,  Sci.,  11 :  119. 
Mountain  Formation,  Philosoph.  M. 
Problem  of  a  Flying-machine.  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  34 :  69. 
Relation  of  Evolution  to  Materialism,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  33 :  79. 
Significance  of  Sex,  Sci.,  11 :  229. 
Transfer  of  the  Lick  Observatory  to  the  University.     (I'amph- 

let.) 

1889.  General  Interior  Condition  of  the  Earth.  Am.  Geol,  4 :  38. 
Origin  of  Normal  Faults  and  the  Structure  of  the  Basin  Region, 

Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  138 :  257. 
Ptomaines  and  Leucomaines  and  their  Relation  to  Disease,  Pac. 

Med.  Jour.,  September. 
Same,  Sci.,  14 :  322. 
South  Revisited,  Overland,  2d  ser.,  14 :  22. 

1890.  Curious  Visual  Phenomena,  Am.  Jour.  Psychol.,  3:364. 
Elements  of  Geology.     New  edition. 

Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought.     New  edition. 

Rev.  Howai-d  MacQueary's  "Evolution  of  Man  and  of  Chris- 
tianity," Review  of,  Overland,  2d  ser.,  16  :  110. 

Natural  Grounds  of  Belief  in  Personal  Immortality,  Andover  R., 
14:1. 

1891.  Evolution  and  Human  Progress,  Open  Court. 

Factors  of  Evolution,  their  Grades,  and  the  Order  of  their  In- 
troduction, Monist,  1 :  321. 

Mutual  Relation  of  Land  Elevation  and  Ice  Accumulation  dur- 
ing the  Quaternary,  Geol.  Soc.  Am.,  Bull.,  2:329. 

216 


JOSEPH    LE    CONTE. 

Origin  of  Organic  Forms :  Answer  to  Keep,  Overland,  2d  series, 

18 :  198. 
Plato's  Doctrine  of  the  Soul  Compared  with  that  Derived  from 

the  Study  of  Nature,  Phil.  Union,  Bull. 
Relation  of  the  Church  to  Modern  Scientific  Thought,  Antlover 

R.,  16:1. 
Tertiary  and  Post-Tertiary  Changes  on  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 

Coasts,  Geol.  Soc.  Am.,  Bull.,  2 :  323. 

1892.  The  Race  Problem  in  the  South,  in  "Man  and  the  State,"  349. 
Relation  of  Philosophy  to  Psychology  and  Physiology,  Phil.  Soc. 

of  Wash.,  December. 

1893.  The  Estimated  Distance  of  Phantoms,  ScL,  21 :  333. 
Evolution  and  Human  Progress,  Pacific  Coast  Teacher. 
Main  Characteristics  of  University  Education,  Berldeyan. 
Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Mountain  Ranges,  Jour,  of  Geol.,  Sep- 
tember. 

Same,  Am.  Assoc.  Adv.  Sci.,  Proc,  1. 
Same,  Nature,  48  :  551. 

1894.  Elements  of  Geology.     3d  edition. 

Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought.     2d  edition. 
John  Le  Contef  Memoir  of,  National  Acad.  Sci.,  3 :  3G9. 
New  liights  on  the  Problem  of  Flying,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  44 :  744. 
Posepny's  "Genesis  of  Ore-deposits" ;  Criticisms,  Am.  Inst.  Min. 
Eng.,  Trans.,  24 :  99(i. 

1895.  Are  Consequences  Ever  a  Test  of  Truth?  .sv/.,  N.  S.,  2:379. 
('auses  of  the  Gulf-stream.  Sci.,  N.  S.,  2:  188. 

Critical  Periods  in  the  History  of  the  Earth,  Am.  (IvoL,  1<»:  317. 

Same,  University  of  California,  Geol.  Dcpt.  Bull. 

James  Dwight  Dana,  Memoir  of,  Geol.  Soc.  Am.,  Bull.,  461. 

Dana's  "Manual  of  Geology,"  Review  of,  Sci..  N.  S.,  1  :  548. 

Effect  of  the  Theory  of  p]volution  on  Education.  Educ.  R.. 
10:121. 

Elements  of  Geology.  Revised  and  enlarged.  Plates.  Illus- 
trated. 

Erect  Vision  and  Single  Vision,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  2 :  629. 

Erect  Vision,  Last  Word  on,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  2 :  850. 

Evolution  and  Social  Progress,  Monist,  5:481.  - 

Evolutional  Idealism,  Philos.  Union  Leaflet. 

Geikie's  "Memoir  of  Sir  Andrew  Crombie  Ramsay,"  Review  of, 
Sci.,  N.  S.,  1 :  490. 

Inverted  Image  Once  More,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  2 :  667. 

Nature  of  Vowels,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  2 :  189. 

Prof.  Royce's  Address,  "Conception  of  God,"  Remarks  on.  In 
vol.,  8  vo.,  1897.     (Macmillan.) 


!17 


NATIONAL   ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 


1896.  From  Animal  to  Man,  Monist,  6 :  356. 

Honors  to  James  Hall  at  Buffalo,  8ci.,  N.  S.,  4 :  698. 
Sight     1  vol.,  8  vo.,  318  pp. 

1897.  Prof.  Cattell's  Review  of  "Sight,"  Sci.,  N.  S.,  6 :  737. 
Cerebral  Light,  ScL,  N.  S.,  6 :  257. 

Co-operation  of  Religion  and  Science  in  Uplifting  Humanity, 

Unit.  Club,  Addresses. 
Earth-crust  Movements  and  their  Causes,  Geoi.  Soc.  Am.,  Bull., 

p.  113. 
Same,  ScL,  5  :  321. 
Relation  of  Biology  to  Philosophy,  Arena,  17:549. 

1898.  Don's  Work  on  Auriferous  Veins,  Am.  Inst.  Min.  Eng.,  Trans., 

27  :  993. 

Geological  Classification  and  Nomenclature,  Symposium  on. 
Jour.  Geol. 

Optical  Illusion  of  a  Rotating  Fan,  ScL,  N.  S.,  8 :  480. 

Origin  of  Transverse  Mountain  Valleys  and  Some  Glacial  Phe- 
nomena in  those  of  the  Sierra,  Univ.  Chronicle,  1 :  479. 

True  Idea  of  a  University,  TJniv.  Chronicle,  1 :  3. 

Windmill  Illusion,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  8 :  480. 

1899.  Cerebral  Light  Again :  Answer  to  Professor  Scripture,  Sci.,  N.  S., 

10:58.  '      * 

The  Ozarkian  and  its  Significance  in  Theoretical  Geology,  Jour. 
Geol.,  7 :  525. 

1900.  A  Century  of  Geology,  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  56 :  431,  546. 
Comparative  Physiology  and  Morphology  of  Animals. 
Journal  of  Ramblings  in  the  High  Sierra,  Sierra  Club,  Bull, 

3:1. 
Kingsley's  Criticism  on  Outline  of  Comparative  Physiology  and 

Morphology :  Answer,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  11 :  909. 
Religious  Significance  of  Science,  Monist,  10 :  161. 

1901.  The  Larynx  as  an  Instrument  of  Music,  Sci.,  N.  S.,  13 :  790. 
What  is  Life?  Sci.,  13:991. 


218 


